


Don’t Leave.

by starbucks22



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner (She-Ra)'s A+ Parenting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-01-25 00:28:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 45,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21347296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starbucks22/pseuds/starbucks22
Summary: After an unknown set of events, a majority of Bright Moon is made to believe that Catra, one of the Horde’s most important people, is dead.Meanwhile, however, Catra is clueless about all of this, off on an adventure that accidentally kick-starts her own redemption...
Relationships: Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora & Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora & Mermista (She-Ra), Angella & Glimmer (She-Ra), Bow & Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra & Razz (She-Ra), Catra & Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 87
Kudos: 224





	1. the earth is moving, but I can’t feel the ground.

**Author's Note:**

> Set in between seasons 3 and 4, but season 3 ended much differently than it did in canon.

“Heyyyyy... Adora.”

Adora shot up straight. Her hands reached her sword expertly. “Cat- ...You guys aren’t Catra.” After looking all around her room to make sure that the actual Catra wasn’t in her bedroom, she slowly began relaxing. 

“Hey! Good morning!” Glimmer nervously chirped as she waved her hands at her best friend. Bow, from beside her, smiled but kept his mouth shut.

“Is there a mission?” Adora asked straight away. 

“No,” the duo answered without hesitation. 

She then eyed her best friends with a (probably) appropriate amount of suspicion. “You guys screamed ‘hey Adora,’ at me, accidentally- or on purpose- made me believe that you were an enemy because I was too tired to really make out your voices up until now, screamed ‘good morning’ in my face... and there’s no mission and no danger?” Adora tossed her sword back onto her fluffy, pink and purple, mountain of a bed that she never quite got used to. (She still had a sleeping bag right beside it just for those nights where she really just couldn’t stand it all, couldn’t stand the fact that pink, happy, sparkily princesses and bright, colorful, palaces was her life now. Sometimes it all became too much and all seemed so fragile and uncertain, like it could all be taken away at the drop of a hat...)

Glimmer and Bow shared an uneasy look at each other briefly before turning back to Adora. Adora was pretty darn sure that the look had nothing to do with her tired outburst. She fumbled for her weapon again and placed one ready, steady hand on the handle, just in case. 

“We have to talk to you about something,” Bow blurted out nervously. He pulled Glimmer closer to him, which resulted in him accidentally- or on purpose- smushing her against his chest. The short girl didn’t even seem to care. It was like she was used to it. 

“This won’t help the whole ‘explaining things’ portion of today,” Glimmer pointed out as she calmly pushed herself upright.

“There’s a whole portion? It’s not like it’s going to take that long...”

“Yeah, right, and my hair isn’t bright, yours isn’t brown, and hers isn’t blonde.” She motioned over at all the that she mentioned.

However, the ever oblivious and still tired Adora didn’t quite get what the fellow princess was getting at. “But your hair is bright, Bow’s is brown, and mine is blonde.”

“I... she was being sarcastic,” Bow explained quickly as his best friend quietly face palmed in the background. 

“Oh. Okay. What did you guys need to tell me so badly, then?”

Glimmer and Bow shot each other another anxious, lingering look. Adora caught on to that one immediately. 

“Guys?” she asked, sitting up a bit straighter. “What’s... going on?”

After a few seconds of silent debate, Glimmer spoke up. 

“You might want to stay seated. This isn’t going to be easy to hear.”

“Okay?”

“So, you know that scouting mission that Bow and I went on while you were sick last week?”

“Yes,” she said a bit grumpily. She then crossed her arms. “I still wish that I could have gone on that one with you two. But, anyway, what about it?”

“Um... well, we’ve been debating on telling you this, but we actually found something on that mission. Or, rather, someone.” Adora raised an unimpressed eyebrow and opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Glimmer. “No! I’m determined to finish this out, and boy oh boy will I regret it.” She took a (not so) cleansing breath. “We came across someone there. Um, she was... pretty bad off. We weren’t quite sure if- if she was breathing or not.”

“That’s horrible!” Adora said empathetically. Much to her confusion, the other two heavily cringed. Huh, what’s that all about? 

“Um,” Glimmer, still stuttering, tried to start up again. After a few false starts, she seemed to get a hold of her words a bit. It was at least enough for her to open up her mouth and speak. “But a fight broke out.”

“Right,” she nodded calmly. “You guys told me about that. Did something happen there?”

“Oddly enough, no. When we came across this person, she was already really hurt. But when the fight broke out, we couldn’t get over there to help fix her up. A really big, tall, scorpion lady came over to us after the battle, screaming. She-“ Glimmer sighed and then proceeded to mumble something underneath her breath that sounded awfully like, “She’s gonna figure it out. No turning back now.” Then she sighed once again and raised her voice a bit more, but not by much. It was hardly above a whisper. 

“The scorpion lady thought that it had to have been someone from their Horde squad that did it. That- hurt the girl. Or... worse.”

Adora twitched slightly, the ends of her mouth slowly inching into a frown. 

“She doesn’t quite know what you’re talking about,” Bow calmly stated the obvious. Glimmer ignored him and continued. 

The moment these next words came out of her mouth, then there was really no going back.

“The lady- Scorpia- told me that I needed to tell you. She said that you deserved to know what was going on. She’s going to try to make things easier on you, and try to slow things down at the Horde so that they can’t attack us as easily, but they’re already going to be slowed down because of the loss of one of their most important Force Captains.”

“One of their most important-“ Adora began speaking, but suddenly stopped and froze. She looked in between her two friends, silently begging them to correct her and let her know that her assumption was wrong. She needed to know that she was wrong... but realistically, she knew that she couldn’t be. Why else would they be trying to break the news to her as carefully as they could if it wasn’t because something happened to Catra? “No. No. It has to be somebody else... right? Bow?”

Bow sadly shook his head.

“Glimmer?” She shook her head, too. “Please! Please tell me that Catra isn’t dead.”

They didn’t say that. Neither of them said anything, as a matter of fact. They simply edged closer and closer to her and slowly enveloped her in a hug. 

“No,” she whispered again, desperately. “No, no, no! She can’t be! She can’t just... she can’t just.” Adora was at a complete loss for words. Several long moments went by of Adora trying, (and failing,) to hold back her tears... but the next words she said simply unleashed the floodgates. 

“I can’t believe that I never got to say goodbye...”


	2. i miss you like sleep, and there’s nothing romantic about the hours i keep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora, while mourning, discovers how she truly feels about being She-Ra. Glimmer, clueless, tries her best to be a supportive friend. Angella just doesn’t know how to help.

Adora was not doing well. 

The miserable young woman pulled up her covers all the way to her chin and listened silently as Glimmer knocked on her bedroom door.

“Adora,” she said in that soft, sweet tone of voice that she only seemed to use when things went horribly and she was trying to be the most supportive that she could be. “Can you just... please come out of your room?”

She stayed silent and pulled the covers up even more. As if realizing that she wasn’t going to receive an answer right away, the princess tried again. 

“Look, I know that you’re going through a really difficult time right now.”

_Yeah, that’s a bit of an understatement,_ Adora couldn’t help but bitterly think. She kept her thoughts to herself and tried to focus on what the other girl was saying, but it really wasn’t easy. 

“I acknowledge that. I’m not trying to downplay it in any type of way. No matter how badly things get, though, you need to eat!” A beat or two passed before she said, mumbling, “For once I really hoped that everything you learned in the Horde paid off.” 

_The heck is that supposed to mean? _ She didn’t ask. She didn’t have to.

“Adora, do you still sneak away protein bars when you think that nobody can see you?”

_  
  
Wait. People can see me when I do that? I thought I was being stealthy... _

“You don’t have to say anything about that. I probably already know the answer- also, I told you exactly where to go to find the kitchen when you first came here, remember? Even though it really isn’t my job, sometimes my mom makes me help out on inventory- and sometimes, like on those rare boring days where I have nothing to do, I’ll just do it anyway.” She sighed quietly. “Anyway, feel free to ignore my rambling. Just please eat. And... Bow and I are here for you whenever you decide that you want to talk.”

Heavy footsteps slowly moved away from the bedroom door. The mourning, blonde princess assumed that all of that was done and that nobody would attempt to interact with her again, but was quickly disappointed.

“Adora, are you in there?”

_The Queen. It’s Angella. How do I politely ignore her? I don’t think I can, and she’s probably not going to be half as understanding as Glimmer is, but I really don’t want to deal with talking right now..._

“Glimmer let me know what’s going on. Look,” the Queen sighed heavily, as if she had already been regretting the words that were to come, “I know that this is probably the last thing that you want to hear right now, but we really need your help.”

_A mission? Right now? It’s only been three days, and I’m already expected to go out there and fight the Horde as if nothing had even happened? _Just the thought of it was almost unbearable. She wanted to do nothing but stay in bed and hide away from the rest of the world. 

“It’s nothing hard... actually, I probably shouldn’t say that. I shouldn’t lie to you. I can’t realistically expect this to be easy on you, but we really need you to be there.” Then, as if trying and failing to look on the bright wide, she said, “It’s not even a mission, though! You won’t even be required to leave the castle, just your room. We’re all rallying the princesses and setting up a meeting for later today...” her voice quietly trailed off at the end. “Nobody knows what’s happened.” 

_Nobody knows. Am I expected to tell them?_

If the thought of going on a mission in her grieving state was bad, the thought of going into the war room in front of all her fellow princesses and having to explain to them that one of their enemies, who was quite possibly the strongest, smartest, and most cunning adversary that they had ever met was  dead... somehow, that was much worse. She knew that there wasn’t a chance in the world that she could stand watching everyone cheer over the death of her former best friend. 

She opened her mouth to scream, to yell, to argue against everything that was expected of her at the  worst possible time,  but she couldn’t maintain the strength to get any words out. She fell back against her pillow and stared up at the ceiling in stunned silence. 

_Are they out of their minds? _

As if deliberately ignoring the fact that she was receiving radio silence, Angella continued on, talking calmly as if she was holding a normal, two-side conversation about something as minuscule and normal as the weather. 

“You don’t have to say anything in front of them if you don’t want to. You just need to be there.”

_If you aren’t forcing me to speak, then why do I have to come?   
  
_

“All of the princesses look up to you- and to She-Ra. If the information is only coming from Glimmer or I, and they can’t all see that you’re alive and well, things could go south very quickly.”

  
_Things went south a few days ago, Angella. It’s about time that you get with the program, though. Nice to see you pretend that you care._   


“The meeting is in two hours. Please be there.”

Soft, flighty footsteps slowly faded away.

_She doesn’t even want me there. She certainly doesn’t need me there at all- she’s the Queen. She can take care of it all herself, can’t she? Or Glimmer? I sure that Glimmer would handle it... but maybe her mom isn’t letting her. After all, she’s the one who’s over here telling me how important and special that She-Ra is to the other princesses... is that all I’m really good for here?_

Then, suddenly, with a drive and certainty that positively came out of nowhere, a familiar but not recently felt emotion flooded through Adora with the force of ten suns.

Hatred.

...Hatred?

  
_What is this? Why am I so angry? I can’t tell if this is about Angella or not, but it probably is... _

However, as soon as her wandering eye caught a glimpse of her bright and shinning sword that sat peacefully against the wall on the other side of the room, it suddenly hit her.

_Do I hate being She-Ra? _

As memories flooded her mind and refused to let her go, she sat there for however long it was, just replaying past fights, angry conversations, burning scars and marks bitterly slashed against her back in the heat of the battle, the uncertainty of her friendships with Bow and Glimmer, the even  worse  uncertainty when it came to not knowing if she would ever even make it to the next day at all, being forced to be perfect all the time or risk letting everyone down, the absolute disaster that it was when she really  did  mess up big time and people got hurt, the pain of losing the best friend she would ever have in life in two completely different, but both totally painful ways, the way her body no longer felt like her own when transforming and acting as She-Ra, the feeling like she was constantly pretending to be someone that she’s not...

She just really,  really  hated it. 

Not for the first time, and most certainly not for the last, she couldn’t help but wonder if life would have just worked out better for her if she had never even left the Horde in the first place.

Sure, not everything would be shiny, sparkly, and perfect, but she knew that there was at least some things she would have there that she didn’t have in Brightmoon.

Right as she started thinking of how different her life was, she caught a glimpse at the clock.

12:15.

_Oh, shit. _

_The meeting! _

She was going to be late to the meeting. She had only fifteen minutes before the idiotic thing began, and she knew that she probably should just listen to the Queen and go be there... but she still couldn’t bring herself to care enough to hurry up and get ready. 

Unfortunately, there were other people that  did,  and those people were her friends. 

Her friends that were accidentally triggering an even bigger headache than she already had by suddenly banging on her door.

She didn’t bother resisting the urge to just quietly groan and lazily toss a pillow at the door in hopes that that would deter them. Considering the fact that she had tossed a literal bag of fluff at it, nothing happened. As a matter of fact, the obnoxious knocking only seemed to get  louder.

She stared up at the ceiling once more in complete exasperation. 

_Why can’t anybody just let me mourn in peace? _

Yet once again, she couldn’t quite muster up the energy to scream. She simply sighed and waited for one of the other two to say something.

And say something they did.

“Adora... don’t shoot the messenger, but we’re here to take you to the meeting. Can we come in?”

Well, it’s not like she had a real choice in the matter. For a second she hesitated. She knew that she would end up going. Eventually, someone might say something to piss her off enough that she leapt back into action and screeching with the elegance that she, as herself, normally lacked, but in that particular moment, it wasn’t happening. She knew she was going to go... but why not just go as herself? She quickly eyed her bright and shiny sword and resisted the urge to throw into a garbage shoot. 

Oddly enough, an idea came to mind. She dragged one foot off of her bed and tapped her chin in thought. Why not obey orders, but not  all  of the orders? Normally, she wouldn’t even really consider backing away from something that Angella had asked of her, but she figured that she could be cut some slack there, just that one time. (Plus, she was still pretty annoyed with her. There was also that aspect of it.) She considered the fact that  not  going to the meeting as She-Ra, like she was inexplicably (and gently) ordered to do would be a pretty big, “fuck you,” to both Angella and the whole She-Ra persona itself. 

Also, wasn’t every kid around her age entitled to at least a bit of teenage rebellion? She was always so busy trying not to die via Horde and Shadow Weaver that she had never once even thought about it when she still lived there, still trained there.

But times were different. Why not do a bit of changing with it?

She slipped her other foot off of the bed, slid into some fuzzy slippers, ( Wait, when did those get there? Did somebody move them?)  and skidded her way toward her door. 

She opened it and calmly watched as her beloved friends promptly fell straight to the floor.

“Adora, hi!” Glimmer recovered first, awkwardly got back up on her feet. She bent down and helped Bow up, and there the two of them stood. 

“Hi. We’re here to take you to the meeting,” Glimmer said. She inched forward and, while (probably smartly) looking her best friend in the eye, she gripped the blonde’s arm tightly. “We’re here for you- both literally and emotionally, and whatever other ways there are. You don’t even need to talk to anyone during the meeting...” her voice trailed off, and when she spoke up again, her voice was barely above a whisper. “Even though I would really appreciate it if you would just talk to me now.” Not so subtly, Bow elbowed her. He didn’t even know if Adora had heard that, but he sure wasn’t taking any chances. 

Glimmer looked up at her friend. She then looked up and down, trying her best to not judge the other girl’s fashion choices, or lack thereof.

“Um...”

Adora raised an eyebrow at her. She said nothing.

“Nothing! It’s nothing.” The tiny girl clapped her hands together. She pulled both of her friends in and clung to them, holding them closely. “Let’s go!”

Within only a few seconds, due to her constantly improving teleporting abilities, they landed in the occupied war room. 

All of the princesses were so used to that sort of arrival that none of them even blinked an eye at it. They were much too worried, (and confused) about why a secret emergency meeting was called to care much about it anyway.

The whispering girls, despite the fact that they didn’t care about how Glimmer, Bow, and Adora got there, they were all suddenly very focused on Adora herself, who had instantly pulled out a chair and hunched in on herself in a clear attempt to not be noticed. 

Unfortunately, judging by the way the other girls were slowly starting to stare, that backfired. 

Adora’s casually put together look, (And by casual, that means that she straight up just threw together an outfit at the last possible second,) consisted of some black leggings, and, strangely enough, she was without her signature red jacket. Even stranger, at least to the others, they were very confused to realize that the blonde did not have her She-Ra sword anywhere on her that they could see. At that, the group only seemed to get louder and louder... 

But they all quickly hushed down when Angella, who had been there for quite a while, decided to speak.

“I’m quite sure that you’re all wondering why you’ve been called here today.”

Multiple heads bobbled up and down at that.

“You’re probably all very confused, and I apologize about that.”

Again, multiple nods.

She then motioned for Glimmer to take over. The girl reluctantly did so as her mother moved out of the way. 

“Might as well just get this done with...” she mumbled. She sighed, then opened her mouth and said, “Force Captain Catra is dead.”


	3. and i’m like, “fuck you,” and “fuck her too.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The princesses react. Glimmer and Bow don’t exactly see eye to eye with Frosta...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello this is not fully edited

The war room was dead silent.

For at least a full minute, nobody said a word. Everyone was thinking long and hard. The group frantically glanced at one another in hopes that someone else would break the deafening silence. Frosta eyed Perfuma, Mermista eyed Glimmer, Glimmer purposefully didn’t eye Adora, Spinnerella and Notossa looked at each other, (though that wasn’t because of the awkward tension that the room held- they just wanted to look at each other for the heck of it,) Bow and Angella looked at one another, and Adora, who was ignoring everybody, dutifully stared at the hard, wooden table that everyone was sitting around. 

After a few more minutes of that, the shock started to wear off, and people slowly began realizing what was going on and just how bad it could be. As most of them began whispering, some of them tried their best to subtly look Adora’s way, trying to see what kind of reaction she had. (They didn’t really consider the fact that she was completely aware that Catra was dead, and that she was very much still grieving, so if everyone could  not  give her any attention, she would really prefer it...)

“Are you sure about that?” said Frosta. As they heard the girl speak up, several pairs of eyes shot away from Adora and over to her direction instead, but Frosta just kept on talking, determined to act utterly unfazed by the sudden attention. “I mean, do we even have any proof? Or is this all just people guessing? Assumptions can be good and all, but we probably shouldn’t make a move or anything like that until we’re certain.”

Glimmer raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the eleven-year-old. It was in delicate, emotional situations like this where Glimmer was reminded that the youngest of them all really  was  the youngest... maturity wise as well. She couldn’t be expected to know everything already or anything as drastic as that, but she did have the ability to just sit down, scan the room, and realize that it was very much  not  the time to be suspicious and sassy. The older of the two shook her head once and took a deep breath in an attempt to remain calm and not get worked up and/or overwhelmed. It was not the time to explode. Despite the fact that she wanted to just spit facts out so fast it would seem like she was performing a rap song, she refrained. What she did end up saying was much nicer, and, in her opinion, not quite firm enough to get the point across correctly enough. “I’m positive here. I talked to Scorpia.”

Adora, who had been trying to be invisible, seem to ignore that want for just long enough to look away from the table and stare curiously at Glimmer. The girl noticed that and shot a quick smile at her friend before answering the unspoken question. “I went yesterday and talked to her.”

“But why?” questioned Perfuma calmly. 

“Well, we all know that she’s a Force Captain like Catra was, so I figured that she would know something if there was anything to know- I see those hands in the air, please put them down and let me finish what I’m trying to say- but when I got to see her, she was pretty tore up. When I asked her about it, she was pretty adamant that Catra is gone.” 

“Yeah, I have a question,” said Mermista, who was one of the people that had held her hand up in the air. 

As if this was a schoolroom and not a serious meeting, Glimmer pointed over at the woman,

who had quickly put her hand down as soon as she had been noticed. “What is it?”

“Isn’t that like, super dangerous? To go to the Horde, especially without letting anybody know?”

“It’s not like I’ve never done it before,” the words came out a tad bit defensively, even though saying that could have actually hurt her case. “But I actually didn’t go alone. Or, you know, at all.”

“Then how did you talk to her?”

She smiled and proudly said,

“Well, that’s simple. I actually thought this through, by the way. I sent a note.”

The brunette remained skeptical. She crossed her arms and asked, “Yeah, and that actually worked?”

“Yeah, it did. Oddly enough,” she mumbled the last two words under her breath before nodding her head and continuing on. She then spoke up in a louder tone so everybody could hear her once again. “I distracted the guards long enough for Mom,” she jutted a thumb over at Angella, who nodded at that, “To fly in, find Scorpia’s room, and place it on her bed. From that point, Scorpia met me just a bit away and into the woods-“

“Now I have a question.” Frosta was ready to join in the conversation. She cocked her head to the side. “How did you know which room was hers?”

“Oh!” Perfuma exclaimed. The woman raised her hand before politely asking, “I was just wondering, how did you know that Scorpia would be in the Horde’s building in the first place, instead of being gone on a mission?”

“Maybe she tracked her,” suggested Netossa. “That could happen, right?”

“Why is everybody questioning me right now?” questioned Glimmer. “I’m not done yet! What’s with the third degree all of a sudden? Why don’t you guys believe me?”

At that point, poor Adora just sighed, contemplating just going back to sleep. Or running away. Or both. 

“You just have no real proof that Catra’s actually dead! Nobody in that Horde was likely strong enough to kill her anyway. If anybody would have done it, it would- or should- have been one of us. So, I think it’s a pretty safe bet to say that she’s probably somewhere far, far away,  perfectly fine.”

...Both were looking  really  good right about then.

The room once again entered a short, tense silence. Glimmer was the one to break it. 

“Frosta!”

“What?” the little girl called back defensively. When others stared at her, surprised at what she had said, she defended her words. “It’s true! And you’re all going off of the words of a happy go lucky Force Captain that probably doesn’t even know her!”

Bow then calmly put his own word in before she could yell and protest some more. “Look, we don’t know all that much about Scorpia anyway. For all we know, she was the perfect person to go to. For all we know, she was the  only  person to go to... you know, you don’t need to be so skeptical all the time.”

“I’m not even being skeptical,” she instantly denied. “If all of this is true, then the Horde is going to have a really hard time rearranging things. It could take them months!” (She didn’t notice Adora calmly shaking her head ‘no’ at that.) “Don’t you know what kind of blow we could make against the Horde?” she said it a bit too excitedly. Sure, one of their enemies was dead, but she was still a person- and she seemed to be ignoring that entirely if she could. (Which she couldn’t, really.) “I just want to get all of my facts straight right now.”

“Uh, shouldn’t we maybe... wait for a bit?” suggested Bow reluctantly. While Frosta was all cold and practical, ready to take charge and make severe progress in a war that she shouldn’t have even had to be involved in in the first place, Bow was thinking more with his emotions in mind- well, actually, not his. He side eyed his still silent best friend and continued on. “Maybe talk to Scorpia some more. Since she was so willing to talk to Glimmer yesterday, we should probably be able to figure out more about the Horde’s activities- or lack thereof- this way. Then, when we have more information, we can just go from there. How does that sound?”

“Like garbage! Like I was saying, you’re all just going off on the assumption that this Scorpia lady actually knows what she’s talking about.”

“Well, she did seem to recently be quite close to Catra,” Perfuma said quietly. Somehow, she was still heard. Maybe it was because the rest of the room had either been reduced to whispers, or they had stopped talking in favor of listening in on the main four- Perfuma, Glimmer, Bow, and Frosta. “I’m not trying to be disrespectful here, but you keep trying to ignore a really big factor here- enemy or not, innocent or not, somebody  did  die. And that’s important to remember.” 

Frosta seemed to only get colder. She crossed her arms even tighter around herself and spoke bitterly, “Yes, I know that somebody supposedly died, but that somebody is our enemy! We should be thinking about advancing in the war right now, not gathering a bunch of intel. Like, yeah, Catra was a Force Captain. That’s a powerful position. And, yeah, Scorpia also has that position. But that doesn’t really mean anything right now!”

Bow, who finally seemed to agree with the little girl on at least the last part of her sentence, nodded. “Okay, that’s fair. That’s very fair. I respect what you’re saying, but I really don’t think that we should be attacking right now- don’t pout at me right now, Frosta! If we stay put and just get some information, we can think ahead and actually come up with a solid plan. I think we need one of those right now.” A second or two later, he added, “Plus, we have to be respectful here. Giving Scorpia a few days to lie low and recover would also help all around. We have to take her feelings into consideration right now. Not just hers- everyone’s. Everyone who knew Catra closely, even if it was just for a little bit, is bound to be tore up about this one way or another. So try not to forget that, okay?”

Glimmer, who for once was all for thinking instead of rushing headfirst into things, nodded. “Thank you, Bow. You understand what I’m trying to say here.”

“And I do too!” Frosta exclaimed, even though the argument was pretty pointless at that point, because it wasn’t going anywhere. Nobody was winning it. It was becoming really close to just ending up in a big ol’ screaming match, and nobody really wanted that. “You  don’t  want to attack. You want to sit around, twiddle your thumbs, and take everybody’s feelings into consideration.” She rolled her eyes. “We’re in a war, Bow.” She scoffed. “We don’t have time for feelings right now- and especially not for one of the enemies! If she were here with us, sure, I’d  maybe  consider that, but maybe not even then! We don’t have time to be sad! None of us were all that close with Catra anyway, so we don’t have to really worry about something so annoying as our feelings and emotions-“

That  got people talking again. 

“Do you have absolutely no tact at all in your cold, little heart?” Mermista, who at that point had wisely just dropped her usually bored expression entirely, snapped. “Are you seriously this stupid?”

Offended, the child scoffed. Nobody cared.

“Hey, don’t call me-“

“Oh, so now emotions are allowed, but only when they come to you?” An unusually protective and angry Bow called out.

Mermista nodded her approval over at him. “Yeah, that’s a bit hypocritical there, don’t you think?”

“That’s not what I mean-“

“Maybe you should word that better,” Perfuma, who’s facial expression was calm, but her tone of voice very much was not, said.

“Well, if anybody would give me the chance-“

Unbeknownst to most of the others, Angella leaned over toward Glimmer. (Who had wrapped Adora up in a tight hug by that point.) “You two can leave anytime now if you want.”

Glimmer blinked. Confused, she said, “Wait, but I thought you said that we had to be here for this. The meeting’s been going on for-“ she took a quick peek at the long wall clock- “Only twenty minutes. Are you kidding me?” She tiredly slumped back into her chair. 

“You’re right, I did say that. I was under the impression that we would be having an important discussion. I thought that we would be getting things done.” She motioned around her to the screaming princesses. “Clearly I was wrong. So, go. Take Adora with you.”

She nodded and made a move to do just that. She stood up and tapped the blonde’s shoulder. Looking incredibly reluctant, the blonde followed her friend’s lead and also rose.

“Uh, Mom? Can I ask you for a quick favor?”

“That depends,” said Angella. “What is it?”

“Could you just get the room’s attention for me? Just for a few seconds.”

She squinted. “Why?”

She ignored the question. “Please? For me?”

The queen paused for a few seconds to think that over. “Well, I’m not quite sure how you could make things much worse at that point. I’ll help you out.” She took a deep breath and let out a loud shout. “ HEY!”

Sure enough, it did the job pretty well. Everyone’s heads turned in her direction. 

She cleared her throat. “Glimmer and Adora-“ Glimmer shook her head. “-Glimmer has something to say.”

With the attention then aimed at her, she briefly hoped that she wouldn’t anger the whole Princess Alliance... you know, until remembering that they were all mad anyway, so what was really the harm?

So with that thought in mind, she smiled, grabbed Adora’s hand, raised those aforementioned hands in the air, and spoke.

“Fuck you.”

Then they walked right out of the door.


	4. oh, i’ve been dazed and confused.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra wakes up. She’s oddly alive and there’s someone else with her in the weird, little house she woke up in... perhaps needless to say, but she’s very, VERY confused.

Catra woke up.

That was something that really confused the teenage girl.. she wasn’t stupid. She knew what people had tried to do to her, and she didn’t like it... 

She knew that she was supposed to be dead.

But clearly, something had happened, judging by the fact that she had opened her eyes at all. She was alive, and she didn’t get why. On that note, there was a lot of things that she didn’t quite get. 

For starters, she wasn’t even all that sure  why  she had gotten attacked in the first place. That one small, almost minuscule part of her brain that still had some hope left was convinced that her enemies had done something to her, but the not-so-hopeful part of her brain, jaded with life experience and poor decisions, told her that no matter how much she wanted to blame it all on them, she knew that the princesses she hated so much had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Even so, she wasn’t sure who attacked her or why, but she knew that it had to have been someone from the Horde. _That shouldn’t have caught me off guard, even for a second. I should have expected this, _ she couldn’t help but think. Then, with a creaky, dry voice that had her questioning just how long she’d been unconscious, she said, “Heh. Yeah, so much for loyalty.” 

Catra let out a long, tired sigh as she slouched and laid her head back against... wait, was that a bedframe? Shooting up, the puzzled teenager looked all around her, just to see that yep, just like she thought, she was in a bed... a very unfamiliar bed. And a very unfamiliar building that she could have  sworn  she had never seen before. On top of that, it was a house that she could distinctly remember  not  being in the last time that she was awake. Reluctantly, Catra looked through the bedroom door in an attempt to see if there was anything distinctive or important out there. A major part of her was hoping that there was nothing there, just so her day couldn’t get any stranger than it already was... but no, of course that couldn’t happen. As if life only existed to make things weirder for Catra, she could clearly spot a kitchen table full of good looking, potentially safe food. And even if none of it was actually as edible as it appeared, that was okay, because she had some emergence rations on hand anyway. She always did...

Except for the one time that she needed them, apparently. She patted at her pockets frantically, only to be A: very disappointed and upset that the packs weren’t there- she carried those around with her for a reason, after all- And, B: pained. She slumped back into the bed once again, but the difference between the first time she had done it and the second one was noticeably drastic.

The shock of the strange situation hadn’t really caught up with her until just then. Whatever adrenaline she had had clearly worn off as pain suddenly  exploded  practically everywhere in her body. She tried to ignore it the best that she could, (and she failed,) as she once again eyed the not so far off fruit basket that sat on the table, silently considered whether or not it was worth getting up and moving for...

Unfortunately for her, she didn’t exactly have the time to really think about the decision before a door on the other side of the house suddenly opened up...

“Hello dearie!”

  
_What the fuck? Was somebody there- no, that was a stupid question, clearly somebody was there!_ For some reason, she couldn’t help but wonder if the person was trespassing... you know, until she remembered that technically  she  was trespassing, even if that hadn’t actually been her intention. Added on to that, there was also the facts that she had been far too unconscious, injured, and half dead to doing something as strenuous as trespassing. Then, on top of all of that, she had to attempt to get up and fight? _Yeah, this is going to be a disaster. _ She gripped onto the sides of the oddly comfortable bed as she swayed and pushed herself up onto her feet.

“Mara, dearie! Are you here? I baked a fresh pie just for you!”

_Who the fuck? Is this “Mara” in here with me, too? Should I say something? Actually, I probably shouldn’t, that could be a really bad idea..._

“Hey, lady!”

  
  
_Yeah, scratch that. I did it anyway. _

“Hmm?” The aforementioned lady hummed inquisitively. “You don’t sound like my Mara.”

_What is Mara? Who is Mara? Do I need to fight it? Is it on my side? I kind of want to know, but I don’t know if I should risk asking about it- _

However, her curiosity (and impulsiveness) got the best of her once again. “What’s a Mara?”

Much to her dismay, the far off footsteps only got closer and closer. The sane, rational part of her brain knew that it was potentially a horrible idea to actually engage in conversation with... whoever else was in the small house with her. However, if Catra was known for anything, she sure wasn’t known for making many good ideas. So, even though it was a horrible idea, and even though it could have gotten her killed, (maybe the other woman was a serial killer... or maybe she was just a sweet, confused old lady... but what did Catra know? Nothing, and that was the problem,) she decided to just risk it anyway. 

She took a deep breath and braced herself as the floorboard creaked somewhere near her. As if suddenly realizing that it’s better to be safe than sorry, she looked around frantically in search for anything that could be used as weapon. She didn’t see anything, however, and was about ready to panic... that is, before she remembered something very important and  very  obvious. She, herself, had a weapon on her  at all times.  She resisted the urge to face palm as the thought entered her mind. As the footsteps grew even louder, she let her sharp claws show.

_But are they enough? What if I actually got kidnapped and somebody else from the Horde is actually here with me, trying to draw me out so they can kill me faster? Clearly the first time didn’t really take... _

“Ah! Hello!”

A smiling, short old woman interrupted her thought process. She waved at the young, injured girl cheerfully. She even held out a steaming pie. 

Catra stared suspiciously and, because she was never really good at thinking through her words, simply blurred out the first thing that came to mind- 

“You don’t really  look  like a serial killer.”

For a few seconds, the woman didn’t say anything at all. 

Then she threw back her head and laughed.

“Me? A serial killer? Why would you ever think such a thing?” Before Catra could explain the very valid reasons she thought so, the woman simply cackled some more. Ignoring the weird looks she was getting, she leaned down and slapped her knee as if that was the funniest joke she had ever heard in her entire life. Catra was reconsidering her last words. She’s never really  seen  a serial killer before, so what did she know? Maybe this- a short, cackling old woman with something that could either be a really long wand or simply a walking cane in one hand and what was probably some sort of fruit in the other- was exactly what one looked like. The lady finally seemed to calm down and stop her fit of hysterical laughter, and for a few seconds after that, everything was normal once again. Or, you know, as normal as everything  could  be in that particular situation.

_Finally, _thought Catra crossly. _She’s done being a weirdo, for now at least. I’d like to just have a good conversation with her and get my questions answered, but I can already tell that’s not going to happen. _

“That’s a good one, Adora!”

_I knew it. _

_Wait. _

_What the fuck? _


	5. i don’t wanna do it, but I’ll do it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mission approaches while Mermista and Adora bond a bit. Frosta and Glimmer are still mad, and Bow is fed up. Adora questions how it’s possible that the group could actually finish the mission successfully.

Glimmer was beginning to think that poor Adora just about had the worst luck in the entire world.

Every time anything actually looked up for the girl, something else, some other problem, came out of seemingly nowhere and smacked her right upside the head. Some of the examples are as followed:

Exhibit A: Adora finds a magical sword in the woods when traveling with her best friend one day, which resulted in her realizing how horrible the people that raised her actually are, which then resulted in her abandoning the Horde, meeting her new best friends, and living in Bright Moon. Ultimately a pretty good thing in the long run. However...

Problem A: Leaving a place called the Fright Zone has its own complicated set of consequences, which was to be expected. Just look at the name of the place, for crying out loud.

One of those big problems was the persistence of Shadow Weaver, who was dedicated to getting Adora back to joining what was probably an evil dictatorship, a bunch of betrayed teenagers that only wanted a real conversation and a bit of good ol' payback, the head bitch in charge who really didn't understand why they were wasting all their time and energy searching after a runaway, and, most importantly of all, a feral, ferocious, wannabe evil teenager with all the anger in the world and the claws to go with it.

Exhibit B: Even though things had been going well with the princesses, everyone had different personalities and different reactions to things. Since they had to be together so often, they were forced to get to know each other. In some cases, that turned out to be a marvelous thing- like, for example, Spinerella and Netossa. They had met one day, got to know each other, fell in love, and the rest was history. There was also Perfuma and Entrapta, during the brief period of time in which she had actually been on their side...

Which lead then all to Problem B.

Problem B: Forcing a bunch of teenagers and just barely adults together, (and Frosta.) and having them all fight in a war that none of them were qualified for ensured that there was going to be a few bumps in the road. Like at the All-Princess Ball, for example. That was a big one. That all resulted in kids that got along on the battlefield, but weren’t exactly close off of it.

Exhibit C: Things starting to really look up in the war and in life itself. The Princess Alliance (plus some) was a fully fledged, constantly improving resistance group, Adora was starting to find a mother figure of sorts in Angella, she was finally starting to get over Catra and learn how to deal with her, her friendship with Bow and Glimmer had been positively thriving, the princesses had an upper hand on the Horde, (the fact that Hordak had a big fat crush on a purple haired, science and mechanical genius did, oddly enough, seem to help. It made him more humane, somehow. Nobody really knew about that, though,) she was actually started to get a hold of the whole She-Ra thing, even though she still hated it, and she was really learning more about the world outside of the war and all the fighting. Everything had been going so well!

Then, Problem C happened: Catra died.

Exhibit D and Problem D didn’t even really have the chance to begin. Even if it did, nobody was equipped to deal with it.

Everyone was still stuck on Problem C.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Adora mumbled out a response, or at least that's what Glimmer hoped she was doing. Six days after Catra died, and three days after the Princess Alliance's meeting, her best friend didn't seem to improve or decline- there was absolutely no change at all. It definitely wasn't a good thing...

Okay, that's an understatement.

The girl was still a wreck. She stayed in her room as if she was a hermit, she barely even let Bow and Glimmer inside, the only times that she would purposely leave it was to do some training or eat, she would never leave the castle, and, certainly not helping things any, she kept on stubbornly refusing to speak.

It wouldn't have been that big of a deal, if there was any way to actual communicate with the girl, but most attempts of communicating with the blonde were either unnoticed or unsuccessful. Or both. Eventually, everyone seemingly decided that it was either time to force her to talk or to just find some new way of getting through to her. Out of respect of their friend, they all agreed to go along and start trying their best with the second option.

To start with, Frosta, Mermista, and Perfuma made an ice sculpture. (For absolutely no good reason. They could have just made something small and straight to the point, but that just wasn't really their kind of thing... They would have just made something involving plants or water too, but they had no idea how to incorporate that into anything that was actually helpful or that they could actually work with, so they just left it alone... not that ice was really working all that well in the first place.) (Also, Frosta was well aware that everybody was still very annoyed with her. That also had a hand in things, good or not.) The small trio had assumed that, if they all tried hard enough, they could either sculpt or carve something out well enough that Adora could draw on it and write back to them. That would have been a good idea, and it was certainly a nice gesture, but they somehow failed to account for one thing: ice melts. Ice melts very quickly. (Frosta felt very stupid once she saw the whole thing melt right before her eyes. Mermista and Perfuma couldn't help but relate.)

On the complete opposite end of things, Notossa and Spinnerella, choosing to stay out of what they were sure was going to become a complete mess, opted out of the whole endeavor altogether. However, even though those two were out, Glimmer and Bow weren't even close to done yet. They tried every single little reasonable thing, (and unreasonable,) that they could think of, but nothing seemed to be working.

"I want to give up! This is so hard," said Glimmer frustratedly, "But I can't just let Adora think that I'm giving up on her!"

"That's what you would be doing, though, but I see your point." Bow nodded. "Quick question, and it's slightly unrelated, but did you ever tell her that we all have to go on a mission tomorrow? The one about giving some supplies to nearby villagers?"

"I did." She walked backwards and flopped onto her bed with a heavy thump. "She, of course, said nothing at all, which is unfortunate... but, hey! She did groan though, so I think that she's making some progress? Maybe even if it's just a little bit? I don't know. The poor girl just can't ever catch a fucking break, can she?"

"A bit of something is better than nothing at all," he agreed before quickly changing the subject. "She's still taking the whole Catra thing pretty hard, I see."

She scoffed, seemingly annoyed sounding, but when she spoke up again, there was no trace of the emotion in her voice. "Taking it hard? I think that's a little bit of an understatement there."

"Look, we can't blame her, okay? Just take a breath and think about it seriously. How would you react if something horrible happened to me? Or Adora?"

At that question, the girl paused to think. "I think I would explode." At the sight of Bow's knowing nod, she sighed and admitted defeat, at least for that moment. "I think you have a point."

He nodded again, as if certain. His next words only seemed to state that. "Oh trust me, I do." Anyway, we should probably go prepare for that mission, now shouldn't we?"

Glimmer shrugged, but hopped off of her bed just the same.

"Yeah, probably. Let's go."

******

Unbeknownst to the other two, while they were packing and just generally getting things together for the following mission, Adora was training... and sulking. And glaring.

_  
Why does this stupid thing have to exist? _She grumpily wondered. 

Crossing her arms, she shot her bright and shining sword a look full of utter hatred and distrust.

_It’s bad enough that I have to go on a mission in the first place. Now I have to bring this thing with me, and become She-Ra while I’m at it? Yeah, no thanks. Why can’t I just be me for just one more day?_

Lugging that weapon of hers around was probably one of the last things she wanted to do ever, even if she completely understood that it would likely be needed for her survival in the very near future. All anyone was supposed to do was show up, drop off supplies, greet the villagers, and show off She-Ra. That would have been fine, if her friends actually knew how to stick to their original plans, but she knew better. Obviously, it's not like anyone in that alliance had a good track record of successful, well thought out plans. The successful part, yeah, sometimes, but that was generally due to some quick thinking and a lot of action, chaos, potential death, and violence.

Not exactly very awe-inspiring, now is it?

It was likely going to be an absolute mess, and Adora really didn't want to do anything, which had quickly become a regular habit for her.

On top of all that, she just wasn't quite sure if she even held the ability to turn into She-Ra in her still shocked, grieving, snappish and sad state.

"For the honor of Greyskull," which was quickly becoming a trademark phrase for her, (and had been for the past people who carried the burden of being the princess,) was always spoken out loud. Even if she did had the ability, she knew that as soon as she spoke, everyone would lose their minds and try and force her to talk to them. Yeah, that was so not happening. _What do I even do? I can’t just not be She-Ra!_

_...Or can’t I? _

_I think I have an idea._

"You in there?"

At the sudden sound of someone speaking and knocking at her door, the blonde was shaken out of her thoughts before they could really go down a long, complicated rabbit hole. Groaning quietly, she got to her feet and let whoever it was inside.

"Hey," came Mermista's laid back greeting. The dark-haired girl, relaxed girl simply glided inside as if she owned the place. She looked around the room for a few seconds, then nodded a very satisfied nod as she plopped down on the near by, unoccupied, large bed. She was silent for a few seconds after that before spontaneously blurting out, "What's wrong with you?"

An awkward silence reigned.

"Oh," whispered Mermista as she started thinking things through. She raised her voice back up to her usual volume and said, "That probably came out really badly, didn't it?"

Adora nodded. Mermista then backtracked and tried saying what she wanted to again, but there wasn't much improvement the second time around.

"Okay, are you still upset about Catra?" Before the other girl could even open her mouth, the brunette was continuing. She facepalmed. "Wait, sorry, that's a dumb question. I know the answer to it, already. Of course you're still upset. It makes sense though, really." Then, surprisingly, she let out a sincerely heartfelt apology. 

"I'm sorry about that, and I'm sorry about the way my words came out when I first got here. I'm also sorry about Catra. I know that she was my enemy- well, actually, our enemy, I guess- so it's kind natural for me to want payback and bad things to happen to her... I mean, she did hurt people. And kidnapped people. But somehow, even after all of that, I still didn't actually want her to die. And I definitely don't want you to be sad. Like, ever. I'm your friend, okay?" She placed a hand on the blonde's shoulder before continuing on. "Also, there's something else. I'm not quite sure if I offended you the other day during the war room meeting when everyone was screaming at each other, but if I did, then I'm sorry about that too. Thinking back on it now, I probably didn't help things when I started arguing with Frosta, but the little bitch had it coming- anyway." She shook her head and removed her hand from her friend's shoulder. As if the time for being emotionally honest was completely gone and done away with, she sighed her typical long, drawn out sigh. "So, yeah. Whatever. Water under the bridge?"

She stuck her hand out for a handshake. It was easily accepted and returned.

"So, yeah. That's done now." She took another quick glance around the room. "What are you up to right now, anyway?"

Adora motioned over at her sword, as if that would simply explain everything that the other girl would possibly need to know. It didn't. It did get one thing across pretty easily, though.

"You're training. Gotcha. Probably a good idea. I'd do that too, but there's no water here. Kind of hard to control water when there's none of it here." She motioned around her at the dry room. "Nah," she said a second or two later with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Who am I kidding? I wouldn't be doing anything important either way. Anyway. Good luck."

And with that said, she left.

******

"Good luck," had turned out to be a couple of very helpful words. The unexpected niceness and emotional honesty from Mermista actually seemed to give Adora just a little bit of a boost. Even though she had a feeling that everything was all good between them before that, truly knowing that someone other than her two best friends really did care about her was a very good feeling to have and a very good fact to know.

Sure, the others had tried to do things up big in an attempt to show their apologies and concern, and it was a good effort and all, but it just wasn't the same as someone purposely going out of their way just to spend time with her and make her feel wanted, or just straight up telling her what they were feeling.

So, maybe her dark-haired princess friend had been a good luck charm of sorts, because the upcoming battle they had all tried to avoid being concerned about ended amazingly... even though everyone decided that if something was going well, it was far too good to be true. For once, they were wrong about that, but they had no clue.

"That was way too easy. I feel like we've just accidentally sprung a trap," said the soft-spoken Perfuma.

"If you feel like there's a trap, then odd's are that you're right. Even if you're not, it's better to be safe than sorry."

"For once, I agree with Frosta. That's when you really know that something's up." Glimmer jutted a thumb over at the shorter girl, who didn't hesitate to stick her tongue out as an oh-so-elegant response.

"Oh ha ha, very funny," she mocked. A few seconds later, she pouted. "But yeah. Unfortunately, you might have a point there."

"See, you two are getting along!" Bow, who was not going to miss a chance to try and force everyone into liking each other again, said. He slung one arm over Frosta, (with some difficultly, of course, due to the height difference, but he made it work,) and casually slipped the other around Glimmer's shoulders. Both princesses glared at him anyway.

"I feel like that was just a one time thing, so I really wouldn't make such a big fuss over it if I were you," the older of the two girls spoke. "We don't get along. It's natural, it's not anything that you need to fix."

"You're wrong, I need to fix this."

"No, you don't. It's totally fine. We can work with each other on the battlefield. We manage it, but we just don't agree. It's fine."

"Yeah," Frosta agreed instantly, despite the fact that she was actively disproving what had just been said. "I agree- wait no!" She quickly cut herself off as she seemed to realize that she was agreeing with the other girl for a second time, thus proving what the only man there had already said. "No! We're not getting along! We could never!"

"Uh-huh," he said with a tone full of disbelief. "I don't see why you two haven't just made up already! It's been days since the war room meeting!" He sighed. "You two are friends, and all friends have their fights, sure, but they talk them out and work through it! And they stay friends. You two," he pointed at each of them, "Are doing neither of those things. And you need to be doing it, for the good of yourselves and the Alliance. But mostly for yourselves."

"It's kind of hard to work things out when Glimmer's been wanting to kill me for the past four days," Frosta spoke up calmly, "I don't know if I even want to risk it. I barely want to talk to her at all, and I know that the feeling's mutual."

"She doesn't want to kill you!" Bow said, sounding scandalized. He gasped and said, "She would never! She's just a bit mad right now, but it'll all be fine! Right, Glimmer?"

Much to his satisfaction, (and even a bit of surprise,) the other girl reluctantly nodded. "Yeah, I guess. I don't want to kill her or anything, but come on, I'm more than 'just a bit mad,' Bow. She was super disrespectful!" He shot her a significant 'Are you kidding me right now?' type of look, but she didn't stop talking. She didn't back down. She continued on and stared him right in the eyes. "Don't give me that face. I know that I can be disrespectful too sometimes, but that's a whole different kind than what I'm talking about here. I get in fights with my mom. We argue. We scream. We yell. I run away, she goes after me, I come back, I get grounded." She flapped her hands dismissively, signaling that it really wasn't that big of a deal. "Then the whole cycle continues. What she did is much worse than that, and she damn well knows it!"

Mustering up the courage to confront the older girl, Frosta bit back. "Ohhh no. I was just being upfront with my feelings. I was being honest! Geez, Glimmer! How can you really fault me for that?"

Glimmer stared down at her incredulously. "Are you kidding me right now? You told us all that we can't trust Scorpia, that Catra is probably alive and tricking us all, that we shouldn't care that Catra is dead just because she's our enemy, and that Adora shouldn't be allowed to even grieve! The fact that you don't think you're in the wrong actually shocks me." She scoffed. She crossed her arms and said, "I know that you're the princess of ice or whatever, but you don't have to have such a cold, little heart!"

The little girl scoffed. "I have a heart! If I didn't I wouldn't even be alive right now!" Before the other girl could explain that she didn't mean it literally, she continued on anyway. "You're just the one that doesn't want to think practically-"

"You're the one that hates emotions! What are you, a robot? An icy, cold robot? Is that it?"

"No, of course not-"

"Then don't stand there acting like grieving is wrong!"

"I never said that-"

"You sure as fuck implied it, Fro-"

"ENOUGH!"

Startled by a: Bow, of all people, screaming, and b: the fact that anyone was screaming in the first place, everyone quickly shut up. (Even the people that he had not actually been talking to.)

"I am dismayed and extremely disappointed," he said dramatically. He then pointed over at the two bickering girls. "You two need to cut it out already! I get that you're upset, okay? I get that you two are mad. I even get that you probably want to rip each other's throats out right about now-" when they brightened up, he rushed to correct himself. "Just because I get it, doesn't mean that you should go ahead and do anything! Chill the heck out!"

"I really thought that he was going to say fuck," whispered Glimmer just quietly enough that the boy she was talking about couldn't hear her. However, Frosta could.

"For once I agree with you. It would have been weird to hear, though."

"Why, because you're only eleven?"

She rolled her eyes. "Don't say that, Glimmer. But no, that's not it. What I meant was that it would be weird because he's like a literal ray of sunshine.... until right now, at least."

The older of the two girls nodded. "Accurate," she snorted. "I'm surprised that he even yelled at us at all."

"Right? I'm not mad at him, though, it's not like we didn't deserve it..."

"I guess that's true," mumbled Glimmer. She crossed her arms. "I know he probably just wants us to get along again, but it's not going to happen."

"Absolutely not..." Frosta hesitated. "But we should probably restrain ourselves from like, ripping each other's throats out or something horrible like that. I don't think the other members of the Princess Alliance would really appreciate it all that much. Or, you know, your mother."

"Yeah, I bet that they all don't appreciate us screaming at each other just after a big mission, either. Especially not when everyone else was just trying to enjoy themselves... I even heard that they're planning an after-party back at Bright Moon."

"Should we just not go? Give them all some peace and quiet?"

"No!" someone else suddenly exclaimed. The duo turned their heads just to see Perfuma shaking her head at them. "Look, we really love you guys. We want you there. So come along!"

"But-"

"Just... can you guys call a truce, maybe?" she hesitantly suggested. "At least just for the night?"

The bickering two glanced at each other briefly in consideration.

Then, they seemed to come to an agreement.

They nodded.

"Truce?" Frosta stuck her hand out.

"Truce." They shook hands.

Overwhelmed with happiness that only flowers, meditation, and, well, peace, could bring, Perfuma suddenly squished the two against her tightly. Before they could even say anything about it, or pull away for that matter, the happy woman was already waving over their other friends. "Come on, you guys! Group hug!"

At that point, nobody hesitated. (Not even Mermista, who still sighed and huffed and acted as like all the mushy affection was beneath her.) Everyone was smushed up against each other and all of them were finally content, even if it was only for just a little while. Adora, oddly enough, was probably the most calm and relaxed one out of all of them.

Unbeknownst by the energetic friend, Adora suddenly realized something very important, or at least it was to her.

Even though people did help me, I did this mission as me... the blonde couldn't help but think.

_I didn’t have to become She-Ra. For once, even though there was a small battle or two to deal with, things went mostly well. Nobody died. Nobody even really got hurt._

Even though tired and exhausted, the blonde felt like she could take on the world, oddly super-powered self or not. (Preferably not.)

Adora threw back her head and beamed.


	6. i feel like a new kid.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There’s a new addition made to the group. There’s a little cat child. Glimmer, Bow, and Mermista try not to panic.

“Bow, you are my best friend in this entire world.”

“Aw, thank you Glimmer!” Bow eagerly reached forward and grabbed his best friend’s hands as Perfuma, who had been watching that exchange with a soft smile on her face, spontaneously threw a flower crown onto both of their heads.

The blonde beamed at the duo and the flowers that adorned their heads. She pointed at the mostly blue one that Glimmer had, and the bright, multi-color one that Bow rocked. “Look! You’re matching!” she said, despite the fact that they actually weren’t. Nobody corrected her. 

Glimmer pushed the crown off and ignored the upset look on Perfuma’s face as they watched the thing blow gently to the ground. Bow couldn’t just ignore that, though. With a frown aimed at his short, sassy friend, he picked the crown up, brushed it off, and placed it on top of his head. The other two stared at him in confusion, but he didn’t care. He was wearing two vastly different flower crowns and he was loving it.

“Can you just  stop  for a few seconds? Please?” Glimmer snappishly asked. “Stop being like sunshine for a second and let me speak?”

He shrugged and fought off a pout. He wasn’t sunshine! Why would she think he was sunshine? He was rough! He was tough! He had edges just like any other average Joe did! ...Okay, maybe he didn’t, but he could sure pretend that he did, couldn’t he?

“Yeah, I can be serious for a second. Why though, Glim? What’s up?”

“Thank you,” Glimmer said, a bit calmer than she had been just a few seconds beforehand. “I’m not finished talking yet.”

“Okay,” he replied patiently, dropping her hands. She briefly frowned, not very pleased with that, but nodded and continued anyway. 

“So, on a scale of one to ten, what kind of disaster do you think this little plan of yours is going to be?”

Bow blinked at her, a bit phased over the sudden non-sequitur. “Uh, I don’t know. You tell me. What plan are you even talking about?”

“The plan in which there’s a little furry child on our doorstep!”

Bow stared, confused. “What? I didn’t bring a little furry child to our door- also, wait. What? What do you mean by that? Are you talking about a cat or something?”

Glimmer paused, a bit thrown by what was either sincere confusion, very strong denial, or amazing acting. Eventually, she decided that it was probably the first thing. If Bow was a horrible liar, (which he was,) how could he possibly manage the other two? “You... don’t know what I’m talking about, do you?”

“No...”

Slowly, she said, “So the little girl really  was  from the village we helped the other day? I kind of thought that she was just pranking me.”

“What?!” Bow loudly exclaimed. He ignored the way Perfuma jolted at the sudden sound of his yelling. He only got a bit louder. “Why didn’t you just  lead  with that? We have to take her back to where she came from!”

“I didn’t know she was being serious! And I know that we should bring her back, but here’s the thing.” She quickly gripped his arm, fully expecting him to run away, find the kid, and take her back home. To be fair, that’s definitely something that he would have done if given the chance. “There’s just one little problem with that- we can’t go back.”

He gently pulled himself out of her grip and crossed his arms defiantly. “And why can’t we?”

“She’s an orphan. She has nowhere to go back to.”

He sighed. “How did she even get here in the first place?”

She pointed over at Perfuma, who had gone back to blissfully making crowns in the background, no longer even the slightest bit interested in their conversation, now that their voices were back to their original low decibel. 

“Well that sounds like a good idea,” Bow breathed out in slight relief. Very slight. “It’s definitely better than someone like Mer- oh. Hello!”

That relief didn’t last long. Clearly. 

“Hi,” Mermista, who had arrived at just the right time, “What the fuck?”

“Hey,” the trio greeted their monotone-speaking friend. 

“Hey. Quick question, answer me now: Why is there a child here? I know she’s not one of yours.” She pointed around at the other three, who each nodded at the last part of her sentence. 

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it all handled,” Glimmer, who was notorious for  not  having things handled, said. She sat down on the floor beside Perfuma and didn’t even look up from what she was doing. “Pass me a rose.” The woman happily obliged. 

“Really?” drawled a disbelieving Mermista. “You’ve got this handled?” Glimmer nodded, still without taking her eyes off of the flowers that sat on her lap. Mermista, full of suspicion, motioned downward where a small hand was clinging to one of her own. She raised both of their arms above her head. “Then why’s this stuck to me?” 

Glimmer, who finally caught on, quickly shot to her feet. Bow followed her lead and quickly snatched up the child, purposely yanking her away from Mermista. One small pair of eyes- one light blue and one yellow- stared curiously up at him, and all was calm and good... at least for a few seconds. Then the child stuck her tongue out at him and jumped out of his protective arms. As soon as she hit the ground, everyone reached out in a clear attempt to to stop the kid from running away, but it turns out that it wasn’t even needed- she simply reached for some of the flowers nearby her, stuck one of the white ones in her brown, fluffy hair, and calmly sat down.

“That went better than I was expecting,” Bow , who had fully been expecting to be cursed out or hit or something much worse than that, said. “I guess the kid doesn’t like me, but I think I can handle that.” A boy who probably couldn’t handle that, said. 

“Bow, I think you’re missing something,” said Glimmer, who was struggling to keep calm and not raise her voice too much. In an attempt to keep her placated, she quickly handed the child some roses and some sticks. Without looking away from the calm cat child, she said, “How do you think we’re going to explain this to everybody?”

“We say, ‘hey guys! We have a new friend and he/she/they are staying with us until we can find a better solution.’” Bow smiled before softening his voice and asking, “Hey little one, do you think that you could you pass me some of those dandelions?” Once he was handed them, he sat them down beside the small stack of sticks that he had been collecting. After that, he began crafting a brand new flower crown. “I think that this will go just fine! Do you really think that your mom is going to pass this up?”

The short girl fidgeted, clearly still ill at ease. “Well, no, I know that she won’t.”

“See?” he shrugged. “Problem solved!” He looked next to him. “Hey, do you have a white rose?”

The kid reached past Glimmer and reluctantly handed one of them over. 

“I’m not talking about my mom right now. I’m not very worried about her for once.”

“Then what’s the issue? Everyone else will be thrilled to have a new addition to the group.” He gently elbowed the person beside him. “I know that I am. This could be a lot of fun!”

“Really?” Mermista, who had been standing there silently for the past few minutes, asked drily. “ Everyone  will be thrilled about this?  Everyone?”

He didn’t catch on, or at least not right away. “Yeah...”

She stared at him blankly, as if unable to comprehend how he didn’t understand the situation that they were about to get in. “Do you really think that Adora is ready to have a small cat child lurking around Bright Moon? You seriously think this is a good idea? Just look the girl in the eyes, for crying out loud!”

He shrugged and bent three sticks together. He then picked another one up and started gently removing some stickers from it. With some forced casualty, (and realization) filling his voice, he asked, “Yeah? So?”

“How do you think she’s going to react? Be realistic here.”

Bow, in denial, said, “Well, considering the fact that Adora isn’t even speaking to anyone or reacting to anything at all, I bet she’ll take it pretty well.”

The brunette scoffed. “Yeah, no. She’s going to be  pissed.”

“How would we even know if she was?”

She doesn’t need to talk to get her point across! She’s pretty damn expressive. Her emotions will be  all  over her face.”

Bow, clinging on to his last bit of positivity, said, “I’m sure that it’ll be fine, Mermista.”

She didn’t buy it for even a second. “You’re just chock  full  of your stupid optimism and lies, now aren’t you?”

He frowned, either heavily in denial at that point or just very confused. (It was probably the first one.)

“No I’m not. I feel that it’ll all be fine.”

Luckily, (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it,) they were all quickly interrupted as the aforementioned “furry little cat child,” as she was called once, spoke up for the first time. 

“Who’s Adora?”

The small group of friends shot one another significant looks.  What do we say? Do we mention the fact that we’re in a war with the Horde? Do we bring up She-Ra? Do we explain that seeing this child is probably going to crush Adora?  Nobody knew exactly what to say, but all of their minds were full of questions similar to those. 

“Adora is our friend.” Mermista was the one who spoke up first. When the others looked at her, probably wondering what else she was going to say, she shrugged. “I don’t know how old this kid is. I don’t know how much is appropriate to say,” she whispered lowly enough that she knew little ears wouldn’t hear her, but because of that, she wasn’t quite sure if anybody else could, either. 

“Who are all of you?”

Mermista shot an accusatory look over at Bow, correctly assuming that he had been in charge of watching over this kid in the first place. “You didn’t let the girl know your name? Did you even get hers?” 

“She must be terrified! She doesn’t know any of us! The poor little thing!” Perfuma wailed as she crushed the poor little cat child in an uncomfortably tight hug. The kid pushed away and, when the hug only seemed to get tighter and tighter, she simply did the only thing she knew how: she bit the woman’s arm.

One thing was for sure, though: it definitely worked.

The blonde yelped, pushed back, and instantly dropped the kid. She smiled smugly, then blinked as innocently as she could when multiple pairs of eyes shot over to her direction. 

Sugary sweet, as if she didn’t just bite somebody, she said, “Thank you for putting me down!”

Mermista looked her right in the multi-colored eyes and, after seconds of silence, then proceeded to cackle her heart out. The poofy-haired girl quickly followed her lead, finding it just as funny- if not more- as the older girl did. Then, once they both calmed down, the older of the two gave her a high five.

“You’re alright, kid. I’ll probably be able to handle you. What’s your name?”

She looked the older brunette up and down before answering. She stuck her hand out for a handshake as she prepared to introduce herself. “I’m Raeley. Who are you?”

“Mermista.” They shook hands. 

“So, Mermista,” Raeley began as they separated from one another, “What’s your deal?”

“My deal?” she questioned, not fully sure what the other girl wanted. 

“Yeah. This one has the flowers,” she motioned over at the sulking Perfuma, “That one ranted to me about a bow and arrow a few minutes ago,”” she motioned to Bow, “This one is really panicky,” she then motioned at Glimmer before letting her hand drop back down to her side. “And that just leaves you.” So, what about you?”

“Water.” She looked over at Bow and mouthed, ‘Do I tell her?’ The boy shrugged, and really wasn’t helpful, so she just made the decision on her own. “I control water.”

“You  control  water?”

“Yeah, I do.” 

Raeley blinked, but that’s all she did. She didn’t question it any further. “Huh. Okay.” 

“That’s it?” questioned Glimmer, who had definitely not been anticipating that the conversation would be over so quickly. 

She shrugged, really not concerned anymore, if she ever had been in the first place. “That’s it.”

“I- okay. Whatever floats your boat. So!” She clapped her hands together and asked, “Do you know our names?”

She pointed at someplace vaguely behind her., without bothering to actually look back: “Mermista.”

“Yes. Do you know what my name is?”

Raeley studied the short princess in silence for a few seconds before going, “No.”

She looked back at the clearly suspicious child, decided that introducing herself right away might not be smart, (even though it wouldn’t have been right away, since the kid had been there for a whole day by that point,) and turned the attention away from herself. “Then why didn’t you just say that right away- okay. Good to know.” She pointed over at the no longer pouting flower princess. “Go ahead and introduce yourself.”

“Which one of us are you talking to?”

The small (not really) human’s question was answered as the woman began speaking.

“Hello there! My name is Perfuma, and I’m the princess of Plumeria.”

She nodded, quipped, “Flower girl,” and Bow took over.

“Hey! I’m Bow. I’m not the princess of anything, but I’m a small part of the Alliance and I like to help everyone out! It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

Raeley clearly did not feel the same, judging by her narrowed eyes and heightened suspicion. However, she didn’t say anything contrary, at least not right then. She just went with the flow. 

“You’re a big part of the alliance, Bow,” Glimmer said as she patted him on the arm. “Trust me, you’re a  huge  help.”

He smiled at her sweetly. “Thanks, Glim!” Then, stating the obvious, “You are too!”

“Is there anything else?” questioned Raeley quietly. She just wanted to leave. She wanted snacks, and she couldn’t go get snacks if she stuck with the talkative princesses. 

“There’s more names that you should probably learn, but since we don’t know how long you’ll really be here, we can probably hold off on some of that for a little while.”

“Is there anything else that I need to know right  now?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. Have you met Queen Angella yet?”

She nodded. “She brought me here.”

“Okay, good!” He said in a tone of voice that implied that he actually did think that was a good thing. (For some reason.) He then pointed over at Mermista. “Her boyfriend, Seahawk, will also probably show up at some point.”

The youngest of the group attempted to comment something that sounded like, “Why does that name make him sound like some crusty old pirate gone horribly wrong?” But, unfortunately for her, she was quickly interrupted.

Mermista let out a long, anguished sounding groan. “Oh my gosh, he is  not  my boyfriend. Why does everyone think he’s my boyfriend?”

Bow blinked at her as innocently as he could. (Which would have been pretty successful if she didn’t know him.) “Is this a trick question?”

“No!”

“ Anyway,”  Glimmer cut in pointedly as she continued with the introductions or the lack thereof. “You also need to know my name and Adora’s.”

“Am I going to meet her?”

Everyone, (except for Raeley herself, who was clueless,) shared a worry filled look. 

“Yes, most likely,” she reluctantly admitted.

Instead of admitting how lost she was, and just how many hundreds of questions she wanted to ask right then and there, the girl simply asked casually, “What’s she like?”

“Uh. That’s kind of hard to answer right now.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s not acting like herself right now.”

“Why?”

“Because- Nope! I’m not playing this game. Trust me little girl, I know how this works. I practically invented the ‘why’ game.” She shook an accusatory finger at the innocently smiling girl. “ It never ends.”

“Hey, guys,” Bow tried to catch their attention. 

They didn’t notice him. Or, if they did, they didn’t give any indication of that. 

Raeley calmly asked, “Can I go get some food now?”

“No!”

Bow sighed. “Hey guys-“

“Why can’t I go get some food?”

“Because I didn’t even get around to introducing myself yet!”

The girl sighed and crossed her arms. “Okay. What’s your name?”

“My name’s Glimmer and I’m the princess of Bright Moon.”

Instead of just not questioning it and going with the flow like she did with the other princesses that she met, the girl stared right at her in silence for several long seconds... until she suddenly burst out laughing.

“Guys...” Bow said nervously as he motioned behind them. Mermista, the only one that was even halfway listening to him, looked behind her and sighed.

She let out a tired sounding, “Oh fuck.”

He nodded, pointing so quickly that it looked like he was attempting some very rapid fire finger guns. Duh!”

“Your name is  Glimmer?”  Raeley questioned, grinning. She looked around at the others. “ Glimmer? You’ve got to be kidding me! That’s honestly perfect.”

“No,” said Glimmer as she finally seemed to catch on to the nervousness that bloomed on Bow’s face. “No, I’m not kidding you. What were you expecting my name to be?”

“Pretty much exactly what it is. I thought your name was going to be like, Sparkles or something similar like that.”

Glimmer couldn’t help it- she winced.  Hard. 

She then pointedly ignored Mermista’s whisper of, “This is going to be such a freaking mess.”

“You thought  what?”

Raeley didn’t notice anything off. She didn’t know any better. “Yeah. Sparkles.”

“Oh fuck!”

“That’s what I said!” yelled out Mermista, who looked more tired than bored by that point. “You all are  soooo  unobservant.” She motioned over at Raeley. “Can’t I just go take the kid to lunch or something and just let you all work this mess out?”

Perfuma, who finally seemed to clue in that something was about to go wrong somehow, looked out behind everyone. “I’m beginning to notice how badly this could go.”

“Why- oh.” Glimmer turned around and instantly froze up. Bow, beside her, was glaring. 

He turned around to stare at the short princess. “Do you see why I was trying so hard to get your attention now?” 

When there was no response, he motioned over at the wide eyed, absolutely lost, very confused, somewhat emotional, tired young blonde that stood in front of them all. 

“...Hi, Adora.”


	7. so maybe i will talk to you, the only way i know how to.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There’s a discussion. Adora and Raeley argue about what makes a person evil.

It’s been a solid two weeks since Catra died, exactly ten days since everyone got stuck with a little cat child, and around eleven days since the last Princess Alliance meeting, when they become forced to hold another one. 

It was a smaller meeting, announced incredibly last minute due to the sudden appearance of Raeley. Hardly anyone was even required to attend- just Bow, Glimmer, Angela, and Raeley, which was much smaller than the usual group. That didn’t stop Mermista from boredly declaring that she wants to, “See what happens to the little brat,” nor did it stop Perfuma from showing up, dragging a grumpy, tired, hungry, grieving Adora along. 

“This is going to be fun,” Perfuma smiled brightly. Clearly excited for the outcome, and looking just about ready to take on the world, she tried to spread her love and excitement the best that she could, quickly attempting to reach out and grab a hold of one of her friend’s hands. Adora, who was sitting closest, elbowed her in the ribs without looking up from her notebook, in which she was swiftly scribbling out a message. Once finished with it, she turned the notebook around and passed it, along with a pen, over to the perky flower princess. 

Why would this be fun?

Perfuma, oddly enough, wasn’t very surprised that Adora had spontaneously decided to communicate with her after two weeks of dead silence. Sure, the teenager was still pretty quiet, and refused to speak out loud, but it was progress, and it was more than anyone had been expecting so soon. That especially counted Bow and Glimmer who, for some reason, Adora had refused to write to.

  
  
On top of that, the girl had been seemingly very careful in just when she passed out her messages- she wouldn’t do it when her aforementioned best friends were right beside her, she wouldn’t do it if they were looking at her or generally paying much attention to her at all- which was really often,  they were still extremely worried about her- and she was very specific about who she would communicate with. 

Glimmer and Bow, as already mentioned, were a definite no. Not on the list. Mermista, on the opposite end of the spectrum, was at the top. Perfuma- Clearly, yes. Frosta- No, both because they weren’t close to one another and because she wasn’t around all that much anyway. Spinnerella and Notossa- they would be around less often than Frosta is, and that says something right there. Queen Angella- yes, but rarely and only if absolutely necessary. (It was very rarely ever necessary.) 

So, yeah. The list was rather small. 

“Why am I here?”

Oh, yeah. There was also Raeley, who was the whole reason they called a meeting in the first place. They needed to figure out what to do with her.

With her involved- it’s complicated.

“You’re here so we can figure out where you need to go,” Queen Angella informed her, appros of nothing. Nobody else had even spoken. “Bow and Glimmer have been on a lookout for your parents.” 

“I have none,” the child replied dispassionately, as if she was simply stating a well known fact instead of reminding everybody in the room that her parents are in fact, dead. She figured that it was kind of obvious, but apparently it was not. That’s how she ended up in Bright Moon in the first place, so how could they forget so easily? (What she didn’t add was that the longer she was there, the less inclined she was to leave.) “They’re dead, remember? I’m an orphan. I can’t be an orphan  and  have parents- that kind of ruins the whole schtick.”

“Close relatives. Distant relatives,” she corrected, frowning. At what, the child couldn’t quite pinpoint. Oh, well. It’s probably not that big of a deal. “And we have a match.” 

That, however, could be a decent sized deal. 

Or at least, one would assume so. 

Much to everyone’s confusion, Raeley hardly reacted. She looked Queen Angella right in the eyes, and shrugged. When everyone continued to stare at her, waiting for something more to happen, all she did was shrug. 

As casually as she could, she said, “That’s cool, I guess.” If someone looked close enough to tell, (which they weren’t,) they would have noticed the way that her shoulders slumped just briefly before snapping back up tight, the way they were just a minute earlier. They would have noticed the way that this child stiffened up more when anybody, (and that included herself,) talked about her leaving Bright Moon. She didn’t want to have to go. Just the prospect of it had her a little uneasy. (She was finally starting to feel safe.)

So distracted as they were, nobody was expecting Adora to slowly reach for her notebook and pen. 

Even if they had been expecting that, they still would have been at least a little bit surprised, since she usually didn’t react to Raeley. Like, at all, if she could help it. If she couldn’t, she was deliberately casual, acting as if the kid’s existence wasn’t adding to her grief at all, but everybody knew better than that. (They just didn’t say it out loud.) Having a half-feral, hyperactive little cat child around was probably doing a lot more harm than good, and something needed to be done about it. (Nobody had told Adora that was one of the reasons for Raeley having to leave, because they knew well enough that she would push her own feelings aside at the drop of a hat and make sure that the child didn’t leave. Knowing her... she would probably still do that either way. So, maybe that wasn’t a win/win situation. More like a lose/lose one.)

“So,” Raeley, speaking in a dull monotone not unlike Mermista’s, began. She placed her elbows on the table, kicked her chair back a little bit, and rested her head on one of her hands. Nobody was very concerned by this, because at this point they were used to how calm she usually was, but not Adora. Adora was squinting very suspiciously at this kid, and it didn’t go completely unnoticed. “What’s the deal with the relatives? My bad, the  distant  relatives? Did you really find them or what?” 

Queen Angella looked a bit confused. Blinking, she said, “Hasn’t this already been established?”

She leaned back slightly. “Yeah,” she said with a bob of her head and a lazy hand gesture to the Queen, “That’s what you said.” Then, casually, “But when did I say that I trust you?”

She didn’t miss the looks of mass confusion, (and quite a bit of mass horror,) that were shot her way.

_She’s such a sweet child, _most of their wide eyes seem to scream. _Why’s she acting up all of a sudden? Everything was completely fine just yesterday!_

“I was under the impression that you trusted me plenty.” To her credit, Queen Angella didn’t even flinch at the unexpected harshness.

“I don’t know you. And I’m not going to get to know you, so, obviously, I have no reason to trust you. I thank you for bringing me into your oh so humble abode,” she motioned around the large war room then. While doing that, she spotted a dangerously close to face palming Glimmer, but that only seemed to spur her on for some reason or another. “But I know when I’m not needed anymore. So, cough up the information already.. What’s the deal with my apparently not dead family members?”

(Little did she know that the more she spoke, the more someone in that room was seeing through her confident, bold facade.)

“His name is Marx. His last name isn’t reported,” Glimmer informed her, still looking confused. That feeling only grew when the little girl’s tone of voice suddenly went cold. She was going from happy to casual to calm to monotone to bitter to cold quickly enough that nobody was quite sure how to keep up. 

“I know just who he is,” she said lowly, pushing away from the table- and the group surrounding said table- entirely. “He was with the Horde. My family line is crawling with them.” She crossed her arms.

“Crawling with what?” the princess questioned, unsure where the conversation was going anymore. “The Horde?”

“Yes.” Sharp and straight to the point.

“He’s not with the Horde now, though. We looked into it!” She motioned in between herself, Bow, and a wearily smiling Queen Angella. 

Then, crossing straight back into bitter again, this time with an unknown ferocity added to it, Raeley started pacing around the room.

“Yeah,” she scoffed, clearly not very convinced. “He can always betray you. I’d keep my guard up, if I were any of you. It’s always better safe than sorry.” 

“He’s with us,” Perfuma chimed in, albeit reluctantly. “I swear to you, he’s on our side now!”

“ He was with the Horde.  He shouldn’t be trusted!”

“Hey!” Bow, speaking up for the first time, sounding vaguely offended, piped up. “Adora was with the Horde!” He motioned over at the blonde, who was no longer tuned into the conversation. 

“Yeah!” Glimmer, getting fired up on her best friend’s behalf, snapped. She jumped to her feet, as if that would help intimidation tactics at all. She purposely ignored the fact that the insulting child was already at her height, if not even a tiny bit taller. That helped intimidation tactics even less. “She’s one of the most loyal friends that anybody could ever have! You’ve been with her for just as long as you’ve been with me or Mermista. You have to know that at this point.”

“He was with the Horde,” Raeley repeated this slowly, drawing herself up to her full height, which wasn’t all that much. “That means, by default, that I don’t trust him. I have no proof that he’s not going to royally screw me over or try to poison me or- or corrupt me or something if I’m forced to live with him. I’ve heard of much worse being done to many other little orphans. The only difference here is that I’m a heck of a lot more suspicious about it.” She straightened up even more and clenched one tiny fist, clearly readying herself for a fight. “So, I’m oh so  sorry  that I don’t trust your shiny, ‘trustworthy’ BFF,  Sparkles.  I barely even trust  you.  Don’t act all heroic on me now.”

The room was rendered silent. 

That’s when Adora decided to strike. She flipped over one page of her notebook and slowly slid it across the table, over to the side where the fuming child was silently standing.

Even though she was still writing away on a torn out piece of paper, and probably had a lot more to get down, the blonde paused just long enough to search for a reaction on the other girl’s face. 

Raeley slammed it down, accidentally showing the paper to the others. This was all it read:

Simmer down, cherry bomb. 

The noise the came out of the child’s mouth can best be described as an offended, indignant squawk.

“Oh, the soldier speaks,” are the first words that come out of her mouth once she recovered from the retort. (Glimmer and Bow were already wincing. They didn’t waste any time there, now did they?)

Technically, no. I haven’t said a word.  Adora looked just as calm as one could be. She looked almost bored. (Mermista, watching this, very obviously was  not.  She beamed proudly.)

“Yeah,” Raeley agreed, pushing a tuff of fluffy, brown hair out of her face, mumbling about how helpful it would be to have some sort of mask or headband or something to keep it all out of her face. (Glimmer and Bow winced a second time. She shot them each a look, but didn’t verbally question it.) “Why  is  that, by the way? I’ve been here for ten days now, and you haven’t spoken a single word to me.” She widened her eyes, tilted her head to one side, and smiled as sweetly as she could. She was really milking her little innocent act for as much as she could and for as long as she could. Adora, however, wasn’t buying it for even a second. “What, do you not like me? You would be so cruel to little ol’ me? What have I ever done to you-“

Adora interrupted the mini rant by throwing a piece of crumbled of paper at her. (That was one method of dealing with things. It certainly worked, though.)

This one said simply,  I’ve seen cruel, brat. I’ve been a part of it. No matter how tough you are, I’m sure I’ve seen much worse than youZ 

”Exactly,” she crowed, pointing at one of the sprawled out sentences. “You’ve been a part of it. You know what I’m talking about. That place is full of slimey, evil people that deserve-“

She got a piece of paper thrown at her mouth that time. She was just lucky she didn’t swallow it, honestly. 

Yeah. I know. I defected, remember? I know just how bad the Horde can be. I know a lot more than you doX and way more than you ever want to know. That doesn’t mean that all of them are horrible people, though. Some of them just ended up in a bad situation. 

Oh, also, just a little tip: you really shouldn’t judge somebody that you’ve never even met.

“I’m not judging you!” she protested, frowning. “Plus, I’ve met you, even if I  was  judging you! Which, by the way, I’m not. I don’t like you all that much, I’ll admit that easily, but I know that at least  you  saw what was going on, and you got out. This Marx guy that Sparkles and her mother here are trying to ship me off to-“ she paused momentarily when she saw Adora make a face, but the older girl simply sniffled and motioned for her to go on, so she did without any more hesitation. “He’s not like you. Yeah, sure, he’s out of it now, but he still  stayed.  He figured out how bad it was but he still  stayed.”

Don’t be judgmental. It doesn’t make him evil- his actions do that. 

“So, if they do something evil, that’s what makes them evil, and that’s that? What if they kill someone? Kidnapping? That makes them wrong right off the bat, then, doesn’t it?” Raeley didn’t sound so bitter anymore, interesting more than anything. A deep discussion on ethics and morality seemed to intrigue her, apparently. At this point, she pulled out a chair and sat down beside Adora. She then handed the patient teenager her notebook back. 

Not necessarily. People can redeem themselves. They can do bad things for good reasons, and vice versa. 

“Have  you  killed someone before?”

Bow got up and took away Adora’s notebook before she could attempt to answer. It didn’t matter anyway; Raeley, staring nervously in between the two, was already changing topics. Adora snatched the papers back from Bow with a huff. 

“Okay, touchy subject. Got it.” The girl frowned. “But why won’t you talk to me?”

For a minute, she was sure that she wouldn’t receive a reply. Then, 

It’s not like I won’t talk to you. I won’t talk to anyone- I just can’t do it. I don’t know why, not for certain, but I can take a guess. 

Intrigued, she asked, “What’s your guess?”

Well, this didn’t start until my best friend died two weeks ago, so maybe its connected. 

“Oh,” Raeley whispered as the fight seemed to quickly drain out of her. She blinked. “I’m sorry. Who was she?” 

You wouldn’t know her. You wouldn’t like her. 

“Why wouldn’t I?”

She worked with the Horde. 

“Oh.” The brunette frowned. “Why-“

Adora already had an answer planned out. She passed it over.

We had no choice. We grew up there. It was all we knew. 

Raeley then, wisely, seemed to know it was not the time to go on another hate filled rant. “Okay. Besides that, then, what was she like?”

Adora looked her up and down. Looked at the crossed arms, unforgiving scowl, poofed up brown hair, wild multicolored eyes, hard attitude and all. 

She was just like you. 


	8. should i stay or should i go?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Razz and Catra talk. Adora, surprising them both, decides that it’s time for a visit.

After a little while, almost two weeks, to be exact, Catra and the weird woman in the woods slowly but surely began getting along.

They would find themselves leaning on each other for support, (begrudgingly,) helping each other stay upright, (literally,) and even get right down to the  real  issues and thoughts that they couldn’t help but dwell on.

Some things, though, were still more than a bit difficult to talk about, almost taboo. 

One of those topics was, for example, Adora. 

Razz picked that up almost instantly when continued pushing almost ended in a massive blowout. After that, she smartly tried to avoid talking about the blonde, but some days it just couldn’t be avoided. 

Especially days when the blonde herself had messaged Razz ahead of time and announced her intention of coming over to visit. 

She had no way of denying the girl without making her suspicious, so she accepted. She was cautious, though, even in that. 

She knew that having her over could cause many problems if she wasn’t careful enough. 

However, considering the fact that the girl wasn’t actually there yet, Razz couldn’t be faulted too much for being a bit reckless with her words. 

“I don’t think that you hate Adora.”

For such an unpredictable, confusing woman, Razz was still prone to the occasional bouts of wisdom. (Maybe.)

Catra tensed up beside her. Slowly lowering the spoon that she held, she asked with a voice full of restrained anger, “What makes you think so?”

“Every time you insult her, a compliment accidentally comes out.” Razz paused, before shrugging. “At least I think it’s accidentally. I’m not quite sure on that one, dearie. You’ll have to fill me in.”

“It’s all an accident. It’s not like it means anything.” Catra scoffed and put her spoon down before pushing her cereal bowl aside completely. Then, she seemed to realize that she might accidentally be admitting something, and stiffens up. “don’t know what you’re talking about,” she tacked on weakly.

The old woman didn’t even blink. “Yes, it does. And yes, you do.”

“I don’t like her!” The girl growled out, despite the fact that nobody had technically accused her of such a thing. She glared at Razz as she said, “She means  nothing  to me.”

Razz, to her credit, once again didn’t even blink at the sudden rage. She seemed to be expecting it. She just continued on. “Think about the last few years. You two have fought tirelessly for a long, long time. That time is ending, now. And I think that you know that.” She motioned up and down at Catra. “You wouldn’t get so worked up if she meant nothing to you, would you?”

Before the brunette could even snap back, she calmly kept on talking, determined to at least try and get her point across. 

“She doesn’t hate you, either. She is still mourning your loss, even now. She wouldn’t do that if she hated you at all.”

“That’s... true.” Catra reluctantly bit out the words even as she deflated, sighed, and resumed eating her breakfast. She wasn’t too much calmer, but she knew that the older woman did, (unfortunately, in her eyes,) have a point. 

After a delayed silence, the younger of the two spoke up once again, hesitantly. “If you’re right-“

“I am.”

She ignored the interruption the best that she could. She failed. “As I was  trying  to say-“ she sighed, before finishing her sentence. “What does she feel, then?”

“She visits with me often, though she does not speak.” The words came out sounding more like a non-sequitur than anything else. The lack of elaboration didn’t help. “She listens to me talk, and she communicates with a slip of paper. Old fashioned, really.” The woman chucked. “Just like me!”

“You aren’t answering my question,” Catra pointed out irritably. 

“Oh.” A pause. “...What was your question, again?”

With a huff and a growl, she responded, “What does she  feel,  Razz? If you know even half as much as you think you do, then  tell me.  And tell me what to do!”

Razz chuckled as she picked up a pear and tossed it around as if it were a small bouncy ball, and not a piece of fruit. (Don’t play with your food, Razz. Didn’t anyone ever teach you that as a kid?) “It doesn’t work that way, child. It won’t benefit you if I tell you now. You need to figure it out on your own... and to do that, you need to just take a look at your own true emotions. Be honest with yourself, and you’ll know. I have faith in you-“ 

Then, suddenly, in the middle of what was probably supposed to be an inspirational pep talk, she stopped. She held up one finger as if to silence the silent teenager, who wasn’t even talking, before she realized one of two things: One, that she was the only person making any kind of noise, so she put her finger down, and two: somebody was knocking on the front door.

She didn’t even have to peak out the window to know who was there. “Go now, if you really don’t want to see Adora. She’s outside.” She lowered her voice to a whisper as she spoke. She then pointed out somewhere just behind them.

“What? Why? And where do I go? I can hardly walk.” Catra spoke lowly as she stumbled to her feet. That was true. She was still recording, and being shoved away and/or hidden would most certainly  not  help her bruised, hurt leg. 

“The closet. Go.”

“I can’t-“ Catra, as if proving her point, has to grip onto a nearby table so she wouldn’t fall onto the floor. She huffed and reached out with one hand for her makeshift crutches. 

“You can.” With that, Razz handed over the item, and pushed her into a closet. 

Catra landed with a not-so-graceful ,  very audible  thump.

“Adora, dearie!” she could hear Razz happily call out. “Come in, come in! How has your week been? Let’s go into the kitchen right here!”

_She’s trying to let me know where they’re going to be. She’s trying to help me. _Catra realized as her anger at being thrown around dissipated. _Oh._

“Do you want a pie?”

She cracked open the door. It was just barely enough to be able to see what was going on outside of the small, well kept room, but it also ensured that she wouldn’t be spotted. She was somehow able to see Adora shake her head and scribble something down before ripping it out of a notebook and passing it to Razz, who had ignored her entirely and started rummaging around for ingredients. 

_This woman really likes pie. Is she just always hungry or is she just obsessed? Maybe it’s both? Who even knows?_

I don’t want any, the note said. I never want any. You know that.

“That’s true. So! How are you? Good? Bad? So-so? Let me know!”

Same old. Adora made a so-so motion with one of her hands.

“So, not that great.” Delicately, softly, she tried to ask, “Are you still upset?”

The blonde huffed and motioned over at her puffy, watery eyes. The answer to that question was pretty clear. 

“That’s unfortunate. How can I help, dearie?”

You can’t. Or maybe you can. I don’t know. As soon as I know, I’ll let you know. Is there somewhere that I can put this coat?

She was quickly shimmying her way out of her wet raincoat before she could actually receive a yes or no answer. She didn’t really care which she got, anyway. She held it out an arms length away from her while she knelt down, kept her notebook steady on one of her knees, and rapidly scribbled something out.

I would just put it on this chair, but there’s already a jacket here...

Wait.

Time seemed to slow as Catra quickly came to a realization- the jacket that the blonde was lazily pointing at was  hers.

_I am so about to get caught. Razz always gets visitors, and if this was anyone at all other than Adora, then this would be just fine. _She just barely managed to resist the heavy urge to facepalm, incredulous over her own thoughtlessness. _How did I forget to put it away? _

It was true. For some reason, an old woman hiding away in an even older cabin in the woods got at least two visitors a week- which is more than expected for the circumstances at hand, at least. 

For a few measly seconds, her ex best friend seemed blissfully unaware of what she was staring at. Then, slowly but surely, realization seemed to dawn.

Realization apparently hits fast these days. The brunette can see very well, (Adora had scooted her way closer to her position a few minutes ago,) when Adora scribbled out a,

These... these are Catra’s. 

... _I’m so screwed. _  
  



	9. i’m the bad guy (duh.)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The upcoming All-Princess Prom is discussed. Adora drowns in guilt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE MF CLONE WARS IS BACK BABYYYYYY

By some complete, utter miracle, Adora did not fully connect the dots that day. 

She had been close, though- if she had stuck around Razz’s little hobble of a house for only five more minutes, she would have found Catra. As it was, though, she was already annoyed, and that was  before  seeing Catra’s things slung casually over a chair as if they belonged there, so she just left early instead. With a promise to come back next week and actually stay for the full allotted time, Adora frowned, Razz almost threw a pie at her face, (unintentionally... probably,) and Adora went on with the rest of her day. 

Unfortunately for her, the minute that she got back to Bright Moon, she was bombarded by a crash, a bang, colorful fabric thrown in her face, and a bright flash of light that announced one teleporting teenager. 

“Do you think I look better in pink or in blue?”

Glimmer, who had quite literally popped out of nowhere, asked as she shook the blonde’s shoulders. The frustrated, startled blonde jumped at least a foot in the air as she pushed her friend toward the ground. Or, rather, she would have, if the tiny teenager hadn’t seen that coming a mile away. It was the intention that mattered, at least. 

“Cute!” she said as she sidestepped the attack so effortlessly that it only caused to make the other girl frown even harder. Unfazed, she pressed up a short, blue dress to her chest. “You didn’t answer my question, though.”

Adora, whose heart was still beating half out of her chest, shakingly fumbled around for a pen. Glimmer, having expected that, too, faded away with a trail of sparkles and returned with the sought after object. 

I don’t care. Couldn’t you have waited until I at least stepped inside the castle before you tried to give me a heart attack? 

“Oh, please,” she scoffed, looking the taller girl up and down dismissively. “You’re super healthy. Like, without the whole She-Ra thing, even. A little bit of a fright isn’t going to kill you.”

I’d rather not test that theory, thanks. 

“So!” she clapped her hands together. “Pink or blue?” She motioned down at her pink shirt, then down at her blue shoes. It was a very mix-matched, haphazardly thrown together outfit; somehow, though, it looked good, especially combined with the purple pair of pants she was sporting- probably Bow’s- but oddly enough, it came across as stylish and cute on her. At the lack of response, she then picked up the pink dress that had been laying on her shoulder. As she shook it out in front of her, probably in a halfhearted attempt to easily iron out some nonexistent wrinkles, she said, “Okay, so which would look better in a formal style? Pink or blue?”

You? Formal? That’s a thing that can happen?

“Yes!” Glimmer reached out to playfully slap her friend on the shoulder. It probably would have been a lot more effective if she didn’t have to jump up on her tip toes just to get the deed done. “This isn’t working the way I thought it would,” she concluded as she admitted defeat with a huff. “But yes!” she said a few seconds later, leaving behind her disappointed pout almost as soon as she had adopted it. She clapped her hands together with a renewed sort of vigor. “The annual Princess Prom is coming back around again!”

_You’re awfully chipper for someone who literally got kidnapped the last time you went to one of these things. At my hands, no less. You’re not even acknowledging that, and instead of having the serious conversation we need to have, you’re just asking me about...colors. Why are you asking me for fashion advice when I was the one who let Catra take you away and hurt you last year? _ Of course, Adora didn’t actually let anything happen, but tell that to her insanely guilty conscience. You would think that she committed at least seventeen different kinds of murder just by the look on her face alone, instead of trying her best to control something, trying her best to distract someone so nothing could go disastrously wrong, instead of something happening that she had absolutely no way to stop. 

“Don’t look at me like that. It’s going to be fine!”

Famous last words. That’s what those could be, and they both knew it, but neither one of them actually went through with pointing it out. Adora really wasn’t planning on pointing out this horrible idea and each one of its many flaws, but when Glimmer energetically squealed out something that, once again, they had little control over, she couldn’t help it. 

“Besides, we’re all going to actually stick together this time!”

...Isn’t that what you thought last time? Before Perfuma came along and decided to go with Bow?

“Well, yes,” she didn’t bother to deny it, so at least there was that. At least she was somewhat self aware. “But that was then, and this is now! Perfuma’s taking somebody else, she  promised  me that, so we’re going to completely avoid the whole Bow-and-Perfuma fiasco this time around.” Smugly, she then stated, “We’ve got that all figured out. Don’t you worry about a thing.”

Adora blinked at her. The dance was only just confirmed earlier today, wasn’t it? How in the world were dates and/or escorts already being discussed and settled and finalized? It’s only been a few hours, if that!

“And! There’s another big difference this year, too.”

Glimmer didn’t wait even a few seconds to get questioned before she handed out a joyful sounding explanation. She clapped her hands together once again as she said, “We’re holding this year’s Princess Prom right here at Bright Moon!”

Before Adora could make a comment on how amazingly stupid that is- and she most certainly was about to, without even a shadow of a doubt- Raeley, who was walking by with Bow, beat her to it. “Is that really a good idea? I heard about what happened last time with...” She trailed off at that, shooting an unidentifiable look at Adora. When she received no reaction other than a bored stare, she finished up her sentence. “Well, with Catra.” The little girl said nothing after that, but somehow the tense silence combined with the occasional side eyed looks shot her way left Adora distinctly feeling like she was being judged. Over a  prom,  of all things. Or, both most likely and a heck of a lot worse- over  Catra. 

That feeling is exponentially amplified when the tiny, impatient brunette in front of her goes, “Adora, I heard that you even danced with her, right before she, well... kidnapped these two.” She cocked her head to the side just slightly. Not much, but enough to get her confusion (which may or may not be sincere,) across. “Why did you do that?” 

“Actually, yeah.” And that’s not even Raeley speaking that time around. It’s Glimmer. Her head was tilted in a similar fashion to the youngest of the group as she studied her best friend. She crossed her arms. “What was up with that?” 

Seriously, now she’s in on this, too? What, is it gang up on Adora day or something? Goodness. I had to distract her. I thought she was planning something.  She glanced down at the other girl with an almost undeniable surety in her features. If she was speaking, she imagined that her tone of voice would come across as smug. The quick up-and-down glance she shot Glimmer would probably do nothing more than enhance that effect, but she found that she didn’t particularly mind that all that much. Literally everybody doubted me. But I was right.  Her smirk faltered, but she scribbled on anyway.  Unfortunately. I’m still sorry about all that, by the way.

She wasn’t very surprised when her sincere apology was met with a exasperated sigh for what must have been at least the twentieth time in the past year. (Probably more than that, but nobody was all that interested in keeping track of the actual, official number.)

“I  know,  Adora. You never stop apologizing.” She pinched the sides of her scrunched up nose, letting out a short sigh as she did so. “You never stop apologizing for anything and everything that isn’t your fault. You’re the most guilt ridden person that I’ve ever met in my whole entire  life,  and you never had anything to be sorry for in the first place. So what, things didn’t go perfectly last year? That doesn’t mean that we should just give up on hoping that we could all have fun this time around.” Once again, she sighed. “Look. I don’t know who made you think that you need to be perfect or my protector or whatever it is that keeps running through your mind, but you really don’t need to do anything. You don’t need to... protect me. I can handle myself. You know this.”

But. But that whole thing only happened because I was there. You only got kidnapped because I was there. 

“Things would have been worse if you weren’t there at all, but you were, and you came to rescue Bow and I,” she motioned at the spot nearby her where the boy himself stood, “And would you look at that, we’re all fine. And that’s partly because of you. What that absolute jerk, obnoxious mother-“

Bow pointedly cleared his throat. The others weren’t sure if that was for Raeley and her last bit of innocence’s sake, or for Adora’s. Evil or not, messed up or not, cruel or not, nobody wants to hear someone trash talk their very recently dead ex-best friend.

...Or just ex in general. Whatever floats your boat. 

“Anyway,” said Bow pointedly. He really wanted Glimmer shut up before she could have said something that she would regret. The only way he could make it more obvious was if he yelled at her to shut up, but he was much too polite for that. “Apologies and complaints all aside, the Princess Prom should be fun this year! All three of us are going to be inseparable!”

“Yeah,” Glimmer chimed in once again. Hints of mischief and anger- wow, what a combo- lit up her eyes. “And this time, there will be no more- OW!” 

She shot an accusatory look at Bow as she instantly pinpointed her attacker of sorts. When he simply shrugged, totally unrepentant, she scooted away from him, glaring. “Dude! What was that for?” She rubbed at the spot on her arm that he had roughly elbowed.

“I know that look in your eye.”

“So?”

“I didn’t want you to say something that you’ll regret, is all.”

“I wasn’t going to-“

He put a hand out. Then, he made a big show of turning his face away from her and loudly saying, “Talk to the hand.”

“Bow-“

“The _hand,_ Glim, the _hand_ .”

“Hey, quick question,” Raeley, who had been pretty quiet up until that point, piped up loudly. “Why are you so obsessed with this ball thing? I thought you would have all the arrangements done by now.”

Why would she? Adora tossed a piece of paper at the little brunette, who wrinkled her nose as it hit her foot. 

“Because everyone’s been planning for this stupid thing for months now? The dance or the prom or whatever you call it has been announced for almost a month now, Adora. I haven’t even been living here for that long, and I know that.”

That was true. Somewhere along the line, it was unanimously decided that the child shouldn’t just be booted out of Bright Moon when she had absolutely no other place to go. That, however, had not been all that long ago- not even a month. 

“In her defense, she’s had a lot on her mind,” Glimmer said, backing her best friend up despite the fact that she did not actually need the support. It was still nice, she supposed. 

Wait, wrote Adora, So it was announced a while ago. When is it actually being held? 

Glimmer beamed. Her eyes, for lack of better description, pretty heavily resembled a heart eye emoji or bright, shining, sparkling diamonds. Clasping her hands together so tightly that it almost looked like she was praying, she said, “Next month! We need to get you dressed and fitted and you need to get an outfit picked out and we  need  to get your hair done. Sad or not, ‘Dora, I’m going to punt you into tomorrow if you just throw your hair in a ponytail for something this important.” She paused momentarily. “ Again.”

It’s... just a dance?

“That’s besides the point,” she said with a dismissive hand wave. She ignored the way the other three rolled their eyes at her. She was “in the zone...” You know, if- and only if- that zone included cooing over clothing that she couldn’t even see and mentally dressing her best friend in literally any hair style other than the one she frequented. “And you can’t just be all battle ready this time! You’ll just be stressed out the whole time, and that defeats the entire purpose.”

That time, she couldn’t just pretend that nobody was scoffing at her, rolling their eyes and staring up at the blue sky above them with facial expressions that pretty much  yelled  how done they were with her. They didn’t even have to say a word about it. 

Glimmer, naturally, caught on to this. 

Slowly, as if not wanting to know the answer, she asked, “What’s the problem?”

“Adora tried to make it clear that she wants to be battle ready and cautious so that nothing bad can happen to you this time around,” Raeley said slowly, in a very ‘ duh’  sounding tone of voice. She raised an unamused eyebrow at the now frowning teenager. “Yet you want to go to this stupid ball in the first place,  unarmed,  with no game plan? How did that work out for you last time?” Before anyone could get a word in edgewise, she threw her hand up in the air as if she was a student in school, desperately wanting to get the correct answer to whatever question was being asked. That effect was only enhanced tenfold when she waved the aforementioned hand around in the air and exclaimed, “Oh, I know! Pick me!” 

Smirking as he caught on to where she was going with this little act, Bow did so. “Yes, Miss Raeley?”

She stopped waving her hand around so fast it looked like she was attempting to do jazz hands, but she didn’t lower it. Her arm- and by extension, her hand- stayed firmly in place. “I’m pretty sure that teachers are supposed to use the kid’s last name when addressing them, not their first.” With her other hand, she made a ‘on with it’ motion, despite the fact that she was the only one speaking. “For professional purposes, and all that,” she added on, very unprofessionally indeed. 

Luckily for her, the boy didn’t call her out on it. His raised eyebrow seemed to prove that he knew how close her point was to simply crashing and burning. Not very well executed, but A+ for effort, right? “I thought it was the other way around.”

“Well, it  is,  but-“ she cut herself off at that. A few seconds later, she spoke up again, but she didn’t continue with her past line of thought. Staring, she said, “I’m going to guess Blondie over there doesn’t know what I’m talking about?” She paused. “Wait. How does she not know what I’m talking about?” Cautiously, almost as if afraid to offend anybody, she asked, “Have you ever been to school before, Adora?”

Of course.  She wrinkled her nose up in displeasure, but for what reason, the others weren’t quite sure.

The child didn’t believe her for even a second. She took one look at her not-quite friend, then she announced, “You’re lying, aren’t you?” Adora opened her mouth, but she didn’t get very far with that. Raeley, who didn’t seem to realize that the other girl was actually attempting- (keyword:  attempting,  therefore even if she had gotten a sound out, it might not have even made a difference,) to speak, bulldozed over her with all the gracefulness of a loud, stomping elephant. “That just leads me to another question. You know how to read, and you can write really well. But you haven’t gone to a real school... so how?”

Once again, the blonde opened her mouth. Instead of Raeley inquisitively shouting questions at her or just talking at her instead, it was Bow. 

“Wait, guys. I just thought of something.”

Adora huffed and crossed her arms, still annoyed at being cut off, even if she wouldn’t be able to manage much talking just yet. Nobody really noticed.

“What is it, Bow?” asked Glimmer, looking up from the magazine she was reading. It most certainly had  not been in her hands just five minutes ago. Noticing this, Raeley abandoned her role of Chief Inquisitor to One Tall, Frustrated Blonde; she made her way over to Glimmer’s side instead, peppering her with her inquiries on magic and transportation and magazines that just pop out of thin air. 

Bow ignored this, started speaking up again, and just hoped that they were all paying at least a bit of attention to him. “I just remembered that it’s an All-Princess Ball, and not just you guys.”

“Yeah?”

“Scorpia.” 

“Yeah, what about her- oh.” Realization dawned. Glimmer looked over at him as she tossed the magazine away from her and over to Raeley, who snatched it up before it could drop to the ground, as light and airy as a fallen leaf during autumn time. “Right. She’s with the Horde still, for whatever boneheaded reasons that she came up with it.”

“Well,” he said, sounding reluctant as he pulled out and looked down at what very well could be a tracker pad. For a few long seconds, he didn’t say anything else, despite the fact that he had the curious group’s full attention now. When he did continue, his words didn’t exactly give the other three the most hope in the world. Far from it, actually- all it seemed to do was create more problems. Looking over at the frowning Adora, he said-

“I think you’re going to have to give up on your peace mission.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey does anyone still read this


	10. we know how you’re feeling, who you thinking of

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora, Raeley, Glimmer, Bow, and Mermista have a good ol’ chat about love. Adora may or may not be in heavy denial.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is getting posted just barely a week after the last one went up and for me this is an improvement

“Is Scorpia going to be a problem?”

Bow’s response to Raeley’s concerned sounding question was to frown. Then, once he realized that she was staring at him expectantly, he decided to actually say something. “That depends.”

“On what? Is she going to be a problem during the whole prom thing all of you are going to?”

Before he could reply, like he was planning on doing, Glimmer decided to chime in with her two cents. “I don’t think the prom is going to be our biggest concern here.” She crossed her arms. “We should really be thinking about the war and life overall.”

“What’s the worst that she can do? This is Scorpia that we’re talking about. She’s like a teddy bear personified.” 

Both teenagers snorted, but neither denied the accusation. Probably because it was definitely based in truth. (They all dutifully ignored the fact that the tall woman has literal claws for hands. It didn’t seem very relevant at the moment.)

“I don’t know,” said Bow, shaking his head. He didn’t seem all that convinced that the woman was as cotton sweet as his best friend was claiming. “I don’t think she’s going to be all sweet and welcoming this time around.”

She sounded doubtful. That was probably fair. “Wasn’t she last time around? Or, you know,  every  time around?”

“Yes. For a Horde solider, she’s remarkably friendly to people that are supposed to be her enemies. But that’s not going to always be the case.” 

Raeley, smiling, didn’t seem to completely agree with that statement. “Well, maybe it’s because proms and such are supposed to be like... neutral territories? That sounds about right.” 

“Bright Moon is probably the least neutral place you will ever live in in your life,” Bow told her in a very matter of fact tone. “You know, besides the Horde itself, which you’re never going to if I have any say in the matter... anyway, that’s besides the point. She’s just not going to be all happy-go-lucky this time around.”

The brunette was ready to badger the older kid some more, but got intercepted before she even fully got the chance. 

“Scorpia is going to be  pissed,”  remarked a frowning Glimmer. She flicked a hand over in Adora’s direction as she said, “Like, maybe not as angry as she is right now, but still. It’s not going to be good. I swear that she’s going to blow a fucking  gasket  when she sees us.”

Adora huffed at her, scowling, and made a halfhearted motion that was probably inappropriate for children’s ears and eyes, but didn’t refute the statement. 

(She probably wouldn’t be able to even if she was talking; nothing she could say or write at the moment would make her  not  look like a liar, seeing as she had just accidentally proved the other girl’s point and all.)

“But  why  is she going to be pissed?” Raeley questioned squeakily. Instead of getting a direct answer, she got a groan that spelled out just how much Glimmer was starting to regret cursing to a somehow still impressionable child. Adora, who did not share the tiny teenager’s pain, smirked. For some reason, she seemed quite amused by the minor mess up and the high pitched curse words coming out of a young sounding mouth. Maybe it was due to the fact that the blonde was around Bright Moon long enough at this point to see her best friend’s misadventures and verbal screwups with Frosta all that time ago? Or maybe- and this is a  hard  maybe- hearing the little Catra lookalike in front of her trying her hardest to copy the older kids, pretending to sound all grown up and tough was just an oddly welcomed blast from the past. Luckily, the little girl didn’t seem to notice Adora’s suppressed chuckles, and therefore did not instantly assume that she was being made fun of. (Which she wasn’t. Much.) Small mercies.

“She’s probably still grieving, Rae,” Glimmer informed. The nickname slipped off of her tongue naturally. Nobody commented on it, but the aforementioned girl did visually peek up a little bit. “This kind of thing takes a while to get over, I’m sure.”

“It’s been like a month,” said the child who, despite the fact that she herself was still grieving over losing her entire villiage, did not have a firm grasp on time or complex, all encompassing emotions. 

“I’m sure it takes more than a month to get over a painful loss. She lost one of her coworkers- is that even the right term? Anyway. I’ve seen them in battle. They seemed... almost fond of each other?” The last part of her sentence came across more as a question instead of a gentle explanation.  _Oh well. _ Glimmer shrugged. “So naturally she’s not going to get over it right away.”

“I didn’t say that she was supposed to! I’m not trying to be mean, I swear, it’s just that I don’t get it. If they didn’t even know each other all that well, then why is she so torn up about it? And why will she be mad at  us?  What did we do?”

Adora, who had pretty much just noped out of the conversation when Scorpia and/or Catra was brought up a few minutes ago, tapped back in just long enough to let out a possibly irrelevant observation.  They were friends. 

“They were? How do you know?”

Even if they weren’t close, they cared about each other.  It was very clearly not an explanation, but nobody called her out on it. They just let her scribble away, uninterrupted. Clearly, there was something that she wanted to say.  When you care about somebody like that, in the way that Scorpia very clearly did, then it’s going to really hurt when something happens to them. Like death.  She pauses before finishing her small paragraph with,  It might not even be us that she’s mad at. I mean, it could be, but she could just need to lash out.

“Wait.” Glimmer looked over at Adora, confused. She understood almost all of that, of course, and she definitely got the gist of what her best friend had been trying to explain to Raeley, but one thing still stumped her. “You wrote, ‘In the way that Scorpia very clearly did.’ I’m gonna take a wild guess here and say that you’re not referring to a blossoming, lovely friendship here, now are you?”

“And I mean no offense here, ‘Dora,” and that’s coming from Bow, who’s  still  not Adora’s intended audience here. “But that all seems like it’s coming from experience, here.”

Her reply was straight and to the point: 

I think Scorpia still loves her.

“Like, puppy love, or... is it something more?” Even as he asked it, Bow’s question rang full of uncertainty, like he wasn’t quite sure if he was going to get eye rolled into oblivion or something else or the emotional sort. 

“Wait,” and that’s Glimmer again, and  still not who her speech was meant for,  “Love, or in love?”

What’s the difference?

Normally, an oblivious sounding inquiry like that would lead all the others to believe that this was just one of the many things that the blonde had yet to experience or learn about due to her Horde upbringing, but the way that her blue eyes flashed as she bit her lip and studiously glared down at her notebook gave them all the complete  opposite  impression- she was not genuinely clueless, and she was potentially faking it, trying to fool them all. As a matter of fact, this situation seemed a bit more complex than that. When Glimmer, still confused, only repeated her question, it was simply met with averted, expressive eyes and a more brooding type of silence. 

“Butterflies,” called out Raeley, who didn’t even know what she was talking about. It probably wouldn’t have been much better if one of the other two tried to impart their lack of wisdom right now, either, because they knew just as much as a preteen. That says something. “Like, the sea sick kind of butterflies.”

“I don’t know what kind of butteries you idiots are on about,” a familiar voice droned out from behind them, “But most butterflies don’t tend to get seasick.” 

“Hi Mermista! What’s your opinion on this? Our conversation, not sick bugs.”

“All I heard was sea.” She shrugged her shoulders. As she boredly surveyed the small cluster of four, she wasted absolutely no time at all in calling every single one of them out. 

She pointed over at Glimmer, first. 

“You’re plotting something.”

She leaned down to both pat Raeley’s head and get to her eye level better. In comparison to the water princess, the girl’s height was lacking. “You’re happy to see me, so you either like that I’m here, you’re trying to cover something up, or you’re being too nosy like you always are and causing trouble, like you always do.” She cocked her head to the side and, in a tone far too casual, said: “Do you need me to bury a body?”

“No!” Raeley loudly exclaimed as she jumped back at least two feet. “No,” she then repeated, sounding much calmer. She wiped her palms on her pants and shook her head. “No. Okay, look- you’re probably the most knowledgeable-“

“I am, this is a true fact.” Mermista nodded firmly despite the fact that she didn’t even let the little girl finish her sentence, and therefore had know idea if this actually was a true fact.

“As I was saying,” she continued on as if she hadn’t been cut off at all, “You’re probably the one who knows the most about crushes and love and stuff. I’m a kid, and those two bozos are pretty much platonically in love with each other, and Blondie over there is either sincerely confused or sincerely in heavy denial. So, that leads us to you.”

“Okay, I don’t know where you’re getting the idea that I know anything about feelings, because I certainly don’t...” she trailed off there, staring squinty eyed at her little friend. “I don’t know why you’d think I know a lot about love.”

“Okay.” Oddly enough, Raeley seemed to accept that. She crossed her arms tighter across her chest. “Then just tell us what Sea-Hawk feels about you. You can’t just deny that one- everyone knows that he’s into you in more ways than one.”

“He’s said that he feels like his stomach won’t settle down sometimes. Says he feels electricity or something, which is a  very  bad thing when combined with water, which you know I’m always around. Anyway, he’s like, totally obsessed with me. It’s always ‘Mermista’ this and ‘Mermista’ that.” Then she smiled, which definitely did not agree with the ‘I’m so strong and emotionless’ act that she usually had going on. “It’s kind of cute, actually. Just don’t tell him I said that, because I’d have to kill you. And I like you enough that I don’t want to be forced to commit murder. I would probably be treason, then.”

“Doesn’t he... notice how cold you act around him?” Raeley’s question came out sounding hesitant, but the water princess wasn’t phased by it. She might not have even noticed.

“Nah. It’s our thing. He knows that I don’t actually have a problem with him.”

“Does he?”

“Yes.” She seemed pretty positive about that. She nodded. “I don’t waste my time on people I can’t stand. Who around here ever does, anyway?”

It was pretty darn noticeable how all of the others physically shifted toward Adora, who seemed like she would rather be literally anywhere else but there. (Who could blame her?)

“Sooooo.” Glimmer dragged the single word out long enough that everyone knew she was about to say something that was either a: chaotic, b: stupid, or c: highly accurate and straight to the point. Judging by the way she paused and held her hands straight out in front of her in a universal sign of ‘stop’ or ‘I come in peace’ it could be one of those rare times in which it’s all of the above. For a few long seconds after some sort of realization rocked her brain, all she could let out was a soft sounding, “Oh.” 

It did nothing to reassure the others that nothing was wrong. As they all shot confused glances at one another, they were also bracing themselves for some sort of disaster. Wide eyed, open mouthed, and blinking rapidly, Glimmer looked like someone who just got smacked upside the head. The only thing she was missing was some cartoon-esque swirls and stars and such floating above her head.

So, by default, everyone was expecting something much more drastic to come out of her mouth instead of-

“I think Adora is in love with Catra.”


	11. ooh, you’re my best friend.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scorpia, unsure if her friend is even alive, leaves Catra a message.
> 
> Catra really wishes someone could just tell her what to do here, please.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> why am I trying to post this at 1:38 in the morning idek 
> 
> ALSO
> 
> apparently the new season comes out may 15th?? Which Yay Bc content but boo Bc a: I can’t watch it when it comes out and b: I wanted to have this fic done before then but I’m only just now approaching my midpoint (which, trust me, you’re going to want to stick around for that, guys. I’ve got some big things coming up here.)

“I think I have a problem.”

Razz looked up from the book that she was reading, intrigued by this spontaneous admittance. “You don’t say?”

Catra huffed and slowly made her way over to where Razz was sitting on her favorite piece of furniture, a rickety old couch that was probably older than even she was. (Quite a feat, no?) Catra was still injured from her probably Horde caused brush with death, but she was slowly but surely getting the hang of walking without using her makeshift crutches full time, now. She still used it a majority of the time, but it was certainly better than when she couldn’t even take two steps without cradling the items in her arms. By her estimate, she’d be ready to abandon the crutches for real within two weeks or so. (Not permanently, no- but she believed that she would be able to ditch them at home for a few hours, and she’d finally be able to leave.) (Therein lies another issue, if it even counted as one- since when did she think of Razz’s little bobble of a house as a possible home, rather than just a place that she was stuck at due to having no other choice in the matter? When did that even change, and why wasn’t she aware of it?)

Anyway. All of this is perfect timing for the ridiculous ball that, for the second year in a row, she’d end up attending whether she wants to or not. (Maybe she’d only go to make a scene and perhaps make amends in the same breath, but nobody has to know about those particular motives, right?)

Hence, her problem. 

“So. In a few weeks, it’ll be two months since I ‘died.’” The brunette purposely put air quotes around the word died. Then, she motioned down at herself in a clear contradiction to that particular word, proving how inaccurate it was. She was hurt, sure, in more ways than one, but she’s very much alive and breathing. “As you very well know, since you’ve around me for the whole thing and all.”

“This is true,” Razz agreed, humming. “But I don’t see where the problem is.”

“I’m getting to it,” she snapped out briefly before backtracking. “Right. Uh. Sorry?” The last word came out of her mouth hesitantly, unsure, (she was really not used to apologies but was constantly trying to psych herself up for them, for more reasons than one. A big one is due to the fact that she is not naive enough to forget how many people she had to make dues with still,) but it came out all the same. 

The woman waved the awkward apology away with a dismissive flap of her hand. With just that simple motion, she deemed it unnecessary. “Don’t worry about it! Continue now.”

She did. “You’ve heard of the Princess Prom thing, right?”

“Of course I have! It’s been held every year for tens of thousands of years. It’s always been a big cause for celebration. It’s treated as a big deal every time that it does on! I’ve attended it almost every year that I’ve been alive!”

“And how many years is that? And, wait a minute.” Confused, Catra frowned. “You’re not even a princess. How could you possibly get in?”

“Details, details!” Another hand wave. “They aren’t important.”

“You’re weird and I will never understand you. I hope that you always remember that. Anyway... I think I’m going to get invited to it.” She paused. “I think I’ll get invited to it  again,”  the teenager amended. “And I don’t quite know where to go from here on out.”

“Everybody thinks that you’re dead, though, don’t they dearie? Did one of your friends just up and invite a corpse to a party? Not a good idea, let me tell you.” Razz shook her finger at the younger girl, making a ‘tsk’ sound as she did so. “Mark my words, that sort of party is  not  one that you wish to attend. Remember  that!”

Catra, gawking, couldn’t help but ask, “You mean... a funeral. That’s what you’re talking about right now, right? Because if you’re not-“

“Sure I am! That’s totally what I’m thinking of!”

She stared at the older woman blankly, probably not nearly as convinced as Razz would prefer her to be. “You worry me sometimes, you know that?”

“I’ve heard that a lot in my many years, dearie. There’s no reason to be concerned.”

“That. That right there.” Catra pointed at her, not quite smugly. “That is how I know not to believe anything that you’re saying right now.”

“Back to your problems!” Razz said cheerily, clapping her hands together. It was a clear and lousy attempt at changing the subject, but it worked. Of course it did. “You’re going to be invited to the dance by a princess, but all of the princesses think that you’re dead. Especially Adora,” she added on as an afterthought. “So how is that supposed to work?”

“Yeah, well.” Catra frowned as she picked with the piece of fruit that she was dangling around in her right hand. You know that childhood lesson of sorts, “Don’t play with your food, eat it instead.” Yeah, she didn’t quite get the memo on that one all that well. The message is not received. “About that. Something... happened.”

“Oh?” questioned Razz, raising an eyebrow to show her interest. “I’m listening,” she said as she got up from her rickety old chair so she could slide a recently made pie into her oven. Once she settled back down again, she motioned for the girl in front of her to elaborate.

So, she did. 

“Scorpia is going to know that I’m alive.”

“How would she possibly know that?” 

“I don’t  know,”  she huffed, crossing her arms. “Well, scratch that. I think she assumed that I was alive but I was the one who almost confirmed it.”

“How do you ‘almost’ confirm something?” The old woman purposely formed air quotes around the word almost, making it shown just how much she didn’t believe it. 

“She called me on my old com that, by some complete and utter miracle, didn’t drop dead when I almost did. I got bored a few hours ago when you went out doing whatever the heck it is that you do at too-early-o’clock in the morning, so I decided to check it and see if it was so broken that I needed to put the poor thing out of its misery. When I did that,” she paused just long enough to grab at her crutches and get up off of the ground to pick up her aforementioned com device, “I saw her message. I haven’t responded to it yet, but there was a close call. I’m not sure what to say to her if I even say anything at all.”

She pressed a button on it as she threw herself back onto the floor with all the gentleness of an animal out for its prey- that’s to say, not softly at all. 

_“Uh,_ _hey, is this thing on?” _ a loud, endearingly familiar voice called out hesitantly. There was distant  thumping  sound as she, presumably, tapped at her own device to see if it was still transmitting correctly.  _“I’m just going to go ahead and assume that it is, even though I know that this will never get through to you anyway.” _ she mumbled.  “Anyway!” 

“Where is this going?” Razz wanted to know.

Catra shushed her and explained absolutely nothing.

On the other end of the line, Scorpia clapped her hands together tightly, as if this would help with her nerves any.  _“Right! I should probably just get on with this, then. Look,” _ she sighed, effectively losing any and all cheer that she managed to retrain from when she began speaking just a few moments ago.  _“Catra,_ _I know that you’re dead. I know that I’m just talking to a ghost here... well. Probably. Most likely. The Horde are the ones trying to tell everyone that you’re gone, but you know how they can be... so who even knows anymore, really? We’ve pulled some crazy stunts in the past, you and I. For all that I know, you’re alive and well somewhere, just waiting to jump out of some random corner and get your revenge, dragging me along as your possible accomplice.” _

Accurate, Catra thought but didn’t say. 

Razz, as if knowing what she was thinking somehow, simply chuckled. 

_“And I know that you likely won’t approve, but I have to do it. I can’t stay here anymore.”_

Catra frowned, already knowing where that was going. After all, this wasn’t the first time that she listened to the message. It wasn’t even her second. 

_“Maybe you’d hate me for it. Or maybe you’d actually support me in this, now that the Horde tried to kill you and all. Wow, that was blunt. Maybe you’d even want me to plot out some revenge. I haven’t left yet, but uh. I’m planning on it. It’s just going to take a while, of course, planning a daring escape isn’t exactly going to be easy or anything... I’m trying to decide if it’s worthwhile to try and contact the Princess Alliance.” _

Razz frowned, as if a new and confusing thought had just occurred to her. She tapped the younger girl on the shoulder in a lazy attempt to catch her attention, and as soon as she succeeded, she scribbled out a quick question. 

She would have just verbally asked it, but she was unsure of what Catra’s approach to this whole Scorpia situation actually was, and if she would accidentally mess something up by saying something out loud. So, she kept silent.

When was this sent?

After checking, the brunette reported back, mouthing slowly:

‘Last week.’

_I know that the Princesses aren’t going to be all gung ho on avenging you, but I am. Adora might be, too. It’ll probably be easier to talk strategies with someone else instead of planning it all out in my head, so maybe that’s a good thing.” _ She paused then, taking a deep breath. When the white haired, energetic woman spoke up again, she wasn’t nearly as happy-go-lucky as she usually is. Her voice was heavy, laid down by a previously ignored, restrained air of grief.  _“I miss you,” _ she choked out.  _“So much. I know that, for all you liked to put up a strong front and pretend like you didn’t care about anyone, I bet of you were alive and listening to me right now, you’d be missing me too.”_

Catra’s shiny eyes, despite her strongest efforts to blink them away, were filling to the brim with unshed tears. Up until that point, she hadn’t really allowed herself to feel the pain of losing all of her friends and the people that she left behind-

Or the people that left her behind, too.

Realization hit her like a long, pointy sword in the dead of night. She’s been left, and she’s left others. Neither was by her choice. Undeniably, she’s been hurt by it all. It caused her to kick and bite and scream and fight. Time and time again, she pushed everything back in an effort to stay determined and do her duty for the Horde. 

It caused her to not realize, until she finally had time to lay back and think, (again, not by her own choice: it’s not like wanted some of the only people she’s ever known attacking her,) that ignoring how she feels will only cause an big blow up later on. 

Bottling things up, she knew, eventually ended in disaster one way or another. There would be no avoiding that. 

At finally hearing a familiar, friendly voice, (yes, she remembered the fact that Adora was at Razz’s little place not too long ago, but she was also unsure if the blonde could even be classified as a friendly, safe person to talk to anymore,) after two long, painful months, it takes all that’s in her not to go hobbling out of the little hut, searching through the woods for her friend.

She couldn’t keep quiet anymore.

Perhaps Razz noticed a certain spark in the girl’s eye, because she mouthed a quick ‘What are you doing?’ which was promptly ignored.

Catra gripped her communication device tightly in her hand. 

“Scorpia,” she managed to rasp out, unsure if the white haired woman would even hear her right now. She could be busy, she could be running from the Horde, she could be plotting. It could be anything, really. 

But, no. Turns out, it’s none of the above.

After a minute of silence, Scorpia let out a sharp, tense exhale. It sounded so fragile that she could break.

It didn’t take very long for her to quickly conclude:

“You heard my message after all.”


	12. i’d take another chance, take a fall, take a shot for you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scorpia and Catra reunite. Catra has some words to say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably the quickest I’ve ever gotten a chapter done and published after the last one- a grand total of six days.

“I need to get revenge.”

“If you didn’t want to get back at the people who hurt you, I’d be very concerned,” Razz remarked, crossing her arms. The expression on her face could be easily described as unsurprised and unimpressed. “You can still hardly walk without leaning on your crutches , and yet you already want to go fight the organization that almost ended your life? I understand you and your motives, but can it please wait a while? I already have a pie in the oven! If I have to sit here and worry and wait for you to come back, it won’t be hot anymore! We both know that my home-baked pies are  not  best served cold.”

“Oh please, you don’t have to worry,” Catra scoffed so derisively that someone who hadn’t been living with her for almost two months would actually have a shot at believing her words. (Maybe. As long as that someone wasn’t anyone from the Horde that she used to know. Rule out Lonnie, Rogelio, Kyle, Shadow Weaver, and Adora, and there’s a fighting chance.) “You also don’t have to wait for your pie to expire. You have a real obsession with that dessert, you’re aware of that, right? Do you need me to stage an intervention for you?”

“I do not!” the old woman replied indignantly. She refused to buy what the teenage girl was selling, so to speak. At least it wasn’t an important matter they were discussing right now. “Where are you going, anyway?” she tried to swiftly switch the subject off of herself and and onto Catra, instead.

Somehow, it worked.

“I’m not going to go racing out of here without a plan, if that’s what you’re asking me about.”

(She was worried about many things. Worrying about Catra, since she’s gotten to know and truly like the girl, was simply going to be just another part of life.)

“ Do  you have a plan, Catra?”

The brunette fiddled around with the long, somewhat dry strands her hair. The wild mane of sorts only served to bounce more at the innocent motion. She looked deliberately away from her friend as she said, “Well. It’s in the works.” That was pretty much a clear cut avoidance tactic- answer the question without  actually  answering it. Also, she really didn’t have a plan in the first place, but she didn’t quite feel like admitting it, especially not when the older woman was already entirely aware of that. 

“So that’s a no.”

“It’s in the works,” she repeated. “But for now, I’m just going to go ahead and try to find Scorpia. Maybe I can finally meet up with her again.”

“What do you mean by ‘try?’ Did she give you her address?”

“Somewhat.” 

“Well that’s vague,” Razz replied casually, but she cared enough to press forward again to try and receive a better response. “Did she or did she not give it to you?”

“I mean, she  did,  but I don’t exactly want to meet her on Horde grounds. I’m not...” she purposely trailed off at that, seemingly unable or unwilling to continue. 

“You’re not what? Ready?”

“I guess,” Catra mumbled. Her hands stopped playing around with her hair as they just ceased moving entirely, as did the rest of her. Save for her shoulders that is, as they slumped. “Yeah. That’s about right. I’m just not ready to face it head on yet.”

“You don’t have to be, Catra. This is not something that can be solved in one day. You can’t just snap your feelings and get over it just like that. These people betrayed you, ruined your trust. It takes a whole lot of time and effort to even scratch the surface of fixing that.”

“I guess,” she repeated. “Hey. Can I just meet Scorpia here?”

“I’ll be out of your hair for the evening,” which was pretty much a confirmed yes.

*****

“I’m so sorry.”

“What?” Scorpia, who had just barely had enough time to poke her head through the front door before Catra started speaking, asked. Out of anything that she was expecting from a spontaneous meeting with her presumed dead best friend, a prompt and sincere sounding apology right off the bat was not it. 

“I can remember somebody telling me, right before I was attacked, that ‘whatever happens to you next is all your fault.’ I was told that I deserved it all because of how I’ve treated people in the past. That I was so cruel to everybody that I deserved a taste of my own medicine, so to speak.”

The tall woman gawked, surprised. What does one even say to that? No, seriously, what? Scorpia really wished that she knew. “Catra, no-“

“And I know that I have a lot of apologies to make, okay? I know that, and I’m not so naive to expect everything to just... go my way. For people to accept what I have to say to them.”

“What-“

Catra barreled on, not allowing herself to be interrupted until she could get more off of her chest. “You’re the first person that I’ve tried or is currently trying to really make amends with, but you’re not going to be the last. I’m sorry for being a jerk to you when we were both in the Horde together. I’m sorry for being so...  obsessed  over Adora. I’ve been way too... fixated on her for way too long, and I’m just now realizing that I shouldn’t have been. Or, at the very least, I probably shouldn’t have just brushed you off like I did.”

Again, Scorpia tried to ask, “What-“

Catra took a deep breath. “I know now that you were just trying to be nice to be and that you truly wanted to be friends, and you weren’t planning on... leaving, or anything. Or. Well.” She blinked. “I guess you are. Just not in the way that I was trying to avoid. I shouldn’t have assumed that you would leave me in the first place.”

“Okay, what? Where is this even coming from?”

Catra blinked, as if she somehow did not anticipate that she would get questions. It totally slipped her mind. “I’ve been thinking about this a little while before I almost died.”

“Two months ago? You’ve been sitting on this for two months?”

“No. More like five.”

Scorpia sighed. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

The brunette fidgeted, purposely neglecting to look into her friend’s eyes. (friend? Are they even friends anymore? Are they teammates? Ex co-workers? Anything at all?)

“We were so busy with Horde work and takeovers and strategies and training and meetings that I never even got the chance to sit down and hold a thorough conversation with you even if I had wanted to back then...”

“Okay. If you could have talked about all of this a few months ago, would you have?”

“I honestly don’t know,” she admitted, shrugging. “You’re aware how shitty I am with emotions in any way, shape, or form.”

“Well, you’ve improved,” said Scorpia with a mostly nonchalant shrug. She motioned in between the two of them while saying, “I mean, look at us now. We’re talking. You’re trying, I’m trying. It’s progress.” She paused before admitting, with a lot less of her usual cheer, but with a lot more sincerity, “I think that this is good.”

“I think it is too,” Catra agreed earnestly. “And, um. I’m not going to demand that you become friends with me right away or anything-“

Scorpia cut her off by standing up, kicking the coffee table between the two of them out of her way, and crushing her in a tight, familiar, and ever so comforting hug. 

“We never stopped being friends.”

“But we did,” she mumbled morosely. “And it’s all my fault. I literally screamed about how we weren’t friends anymore. To your  face.”

“You did do that, no denial there. But you’re sorry about it now, and I’m honestly pretty sure that you never actually meant it in the first place. You were just upset.” She paused, peeking at the cat girl in search of a reaction. “Right?”

“Right.” Catra nodded her confirmation. “I was being a little shit.”

Scorpia bobbled her head up and down, too. “Yes,” she said as solemnly as she could manage right about now, which, oddly enough, was still pretty lighthearted. The whole conversation served to start them both on a path to fixing things with one another. It was a path that was likely to have a high success rate. One of them was genuinely repentant about the things she’s said and done wrong, and the other one of them was eagerly ready to forgive and forget. “You were too busy moping about your ex to get your head out of the clouds. Classic teenage angst. Trust me, I get it. I’ve done that before too.  Recently,  might I add. I’m only a few years older than you, you know. My hair just makes me look a lot older than I actually am.”

Catra blinked, appearing confused. “Okay? Good to know? But I don’t have an ex.”

It took the white haired woman a few seconds to realize that the teenager wasn’t just playing dumb; she honestly didn’t seem to realize how she and Adora had come across to literally  every single Horde member  that either of them had ever met. (And they were literally raised in the Horde, so they’ve met quite a few in their years.)

“You’re not joking, are you?”

She blinked again, backing out of her friend’s grip, still lost. “No? Why would I be?”

_Wow, she really is that dense._

“Never mind. Anyway, now that we’ve got this all settled, and you’re probably done being a total emo child, we can talk about-“

“I wasn’t done being serious with you, Scorpia! Slow your roll! Also, what-“

Scorpia ignored that and clapped her hands together. 

Er, claws. Whatever. 

“I have a great idea!”

Catra sighed and simply allowed herself to be dissuaded. “What?”

The older woman, (not much older, but still,) grinned.

“You should come to the All-Princess Prom with me.”


	13. walking fast, faces pass and i’m home bound.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bow accidentally stumbles his way upon a shocking discovery on an innocent walk home.

The day that Bow decided to go ahead and visit his family members for the first time in many months, (not Glimmer or Adora, who he practically lived with and were always like family to him, but his biological ones,) the sky was sunny and bright. 

When clouds began sliding over the warm sun as he approached the nearby woods and began to march right through them, he (perhaps wisely) took that as a bad omen.

“Well that’s concerning,” he said out loud, despite the fact that nobody could hear him, as the bright sunshine faded away. Nobody heard anything he said, that is, until he got out his brand new communication device and contacted his parents.

“Hey, I might be a bit late to dinner tonight. I think I can see a storm rolling in.”

As if to prove his point, more dark rainclouds covered the sun one by one until Bow could just barely see the light trying to peek its way through the fluffy cover. When a loud burst of lightning sounded off, booming in the distance, he wrapped his jacket around himself a bit tighter and picked up his pace. 

“I can hear how bad it already is from here,” one of his dads, Lance, replied affirmatively. “We don’t want you out there right now. Is there anywhere you can stop and wait out the weather?”

“No,” Bow answered automatically, seeing as he couldn’t spot a safe shelter to go to. He did, however, pinpoint a creepy old cabin a bit further down into the woods. He was almost certain that it wasn’t the best idea in the world to go waltzing up there and knocking on the door, but he also really didn’t want to make his dad’s worry any more than they already do every day, hoping and praying that their little boy is alive and fine in the midst of a horrible war. “Well, I see a little house down the dirt road less than a mile away, but I don’t know if I want to risk going to it.”

“And why not?”

“I don’t know. I can’t pinpoint the exact reason, but I can sure tell you that it reminds me of a haunted house, or something. And you  know  how I am with those.” That was a good point, and they both knew it. When he was six years old, he- inspired by the spirits of his very first BFF, Glimmer- made up his mind that he was going to drag her along to both his and her’s very first haunted house. 

They made it five minutes before racing out the door, clinging to their parents crying about psychotic weapon wielding maniacs. 

(Glimmer, later on, was so determined to get through it all that she, along with three dad’s, one mom, and a cautious little boy went every single year until the youngest of the group turned eleven years old.)

“Just knock on the door. Maybe the person it belongs to is really nice. Maybe it isn’t as creepy as you think.”

Bow sighed as he trudged forward despite his clear hesitance, trusting that his father knew best. Well. Usually.  Most  of the time the man knows best. “Aren’t you supposed to be telling me that I  shouldn’t  go?”

All he heard was a grumpy sounding, “Well-“ before his dad was cut off and somebody new was speaking to him, instead. 

It took him a few seconds to realize that the new voice was talking on his end of the call, not his father’s. 

“Hello?” Bow asked as he stared down the short, cheerful old woman that had (apparently) spoken. Once noticing that she had most, if not all, of the attention focused on her, she grinned and waved at him, going so far as to stand up a bit straighter. (Which was probably a good idea, judging by how crooked and bent her back looked to be.) She even leaned back away from her possibly not even necessary cane. 

“Hello, dearie!”

“Uh. Hi?” He had no idea what this random woman wanted from him, and he had no idea if he should have just ignored her, shook his head, and made a break for it. In the end, his curiosity stopped him from fleeing.

_Plus, _ Bow thought rather incorrectly, _I’m sure that she’s pretty harmless. She’s at least two feet shorter than me. What’s the worst that she do? Kick me in the knees? _

_...Actually, I really shouldn’t doubt her. I have painful experience in that matter._

“Hello!” the old woman energetically crowed. “I’m Razz! You must be Bow. Adora has written down so much about you these last few weeks!”

He straightened up, pulling his muscles just a bit tighter. He refused to let his confusion show. Was this even the Razz that Adora trusted so much, or was some happy-go-lucky stranger that just so happened to know Adora’s first name? “What? How do you know who I am- I mean I don’t know who you’re talking about! It’s not me! I don’t know a Bow! My name is...” he was forced to pause there as he frantically scrubbed the far crevices of his mind for a name that wouldn’t come across as sounding faker than the dark black wig Glimmer fashioned throughout her self proclaimed, “Secret emo phase. It’s my hidden shame, Bow!”

Unfortunately, he came up empty. 

Also unfortunately, (or maybe not?) someone else was speaking before he could attempt to stutter out an awkward response. 

“Ohhhhhh shit.”

Bow blinked, staring confusedly at the woman in front of him. 

You know, the one who had not even opened her mouth, despite the fact that the young man was  positive  he had just heard someone violently cursing from... was that a bush? 

It didn’t help how the panicked background voice sounded strangely familiar, either. As he looked around the, in his humble opinion,  really  creepy woods, he didn’t find any bodies, (human or not,) that the voice could belong to. 

The mature, logical part of his brain didn’t care, but his emotional side was far more sure that he knew the reasoning for that. 

After all, you can’t see the dead. 

Logically, he knew that whoever he was searching for was very likely  not  the supposedly long dead Catra, but the resemblance, (vocal wise, at least,) was uncanny. It was seriously starting to freak him out.

He was about to voice that thought aloud, too, when a familiar woman lumbered her way into the metaphorical spotlight.

“Scorpia!” Bow exclaimed, smiling as he tried his best to toss the taller of the two into a warm hug. She grinned back at him and, thankfully, bent down so she could receive it better. “What are you doing here?”

“Visiting a friend!”

“You’re out here visiting a friend, in the middle of some very spooky woods, as a storm is rolling in? When it gets started soon, you won’t be able to leave!”

“Then doesn’t that mean that you shouldn’t be here, either?” she asked, genuine worry sparking her features. “I don’t want you to be stuck here!”

“I shouldn’t be. I told my Dads that I’ll be a bit late, anyway.” He shot a quick glance up at the dark sky. “Looks like that was a smart decision to make. If I hustle, I should be able to make it to my Dad’s in time, but leaving you here just doesn’t feel right. Why don’t you just come with me?”

“I would love to!” she smiled. “But I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I told you, I’m here with a friend. A friend that’s not Razz, I mean.”

“And that friend,” the faceless, oddly familiar voice drawled out, “Would really like it if you let this guy get out of here before he starts getting even more suspicious than he already is.”

“Why?” asked a curious sounding Scorpia. “You wanted to begin apologizing, anyway! Here’s a good chance!”

“Yeah,” the voice- Bow could definitely identify it as a girl, even though he was still increasingly hesitant to admit that the girl is Catra- began. “But I wanted to start out with someone I was at least halfway convinced  wouldn’t  shoot me in the face.”

“I would  never,”  Bow yelled out as Scorpia, who had recently moved to stand beside him, screeched out a passionate, “He would  never.”

“Yeah, yeah,” the voice mumbled back at them. She was speaking in a tone low enough that nobody would be able hear her if they weren’t all so physically close to one another. It was certainly a good tactic to avoid any eavesdroppers, even though there were none.

“Just help him get back safely to Adora and his BFF Sparkles, or whatever. Not like I care.”

“We’ve talked about this,” the oldest of the trio sighed out, either not noticing or just blissfully ignoring Bow’s slack jawed expression of pure, absolute shock.

_What in the actual-_

_That has to actually be Catra-_

_It sounds just like her, but it can’t be! She’s dead!_

_Or maybe she’s not? I mean, she’s pretty strong. It’s possible that she theoretically could have survived, but..._

“You’re dead,” he blurted out rather inelegantly.

“Am I now?” inquired the (apparent) Catra as she slinked her way out of the shadows and officially into his line of vision. She looked down at one of her hands as she moved it around in a circular motion. She shrugged, “I feel alive enough to me.”

“You’re  dead,”  he repeated blankly. 

“No, I’m not.” She stated the obvious. “Do I look dead to you?”

“You- you were!” That, he was certain on.

When Catra and Scorpia shot each other a heavy, significant sort of look, he decided that maybe he shouldn’t be so certain about anything at all right about now. Already, he’d been proven wrong about something so incredibly major that it had the potential to change the war forever- and his friend group, although one scenario is much more crucial than the other. 

“I wasn’t,” the brunette admitted after a long, drawn out pause of silence. “I wasn’t dead.”

“...What?”

“I wasn’t dead,” she reiterated. “But I couldn’t tell anybody that. I was too banged up to even leave Razz’s little... hobble of a house over there. I could barely even walk.” She motioned downwards, over at the crutches she was placing a majority of her weight on. “I can find my way around now- sometimes even without these things- but it’s taken a lot of time and practice to even get as far as I have. I still have a long way to go.”

“She’s going to the Princess Prom with me!” Scorpia abruptly squealed out, promptly ending what was previously an opportunity for an emotional chat/explanation. “It’s not very far away, you know.”

“I mean... she’s not wrong. But that’s very much  not the important issue right now,  Scorp.” Catra sighed out as she turned around just slightly to face Bow in a more dead on sort of way. “Bow-“

“You’re using my actual name,” came the instant reply. Bow, if questioned about it, would not deny how taken aback he was. Of all the times he’d encountered the fellow teenager, (which was usually due to Adora, but that’s besides the point,) she never once called him by his actual name. Just because of that small difference, he can already tell that something has shifted from their normal confrontations. It had the potential to be a significant one, too. “Sorry. Just surprised me a bit. Carry on.”

“Bow, I know that you weren’t expecting to see me today-“

_That’s a large understatement, but sure. Yeah. Let’s go with that._

“-And I’m not going to lie, because I’ve tried that and I know for a fact that it isn’t going to get me anywhere I want to be, I thought I had more time before I had to see anyone from your little happy-go-lucky Bright Moon gang. Moral of the story: neither of us are prepared for this. Plus, you kind of had no idea of my actual existence, so... look.” She sighed again, leaning more weight onto one side of her body so she could take a hand off of one of her crutches. She ran the aforementioned hand down her face exasperatedly. (But why, nobody really knew. There was a large multitude of reasons for her to be upset, after all. “Look, I know that I have a lot to make amends to make, and trust me, I’m going to do it. I’m just not starting with you.”

“She’s starting with the people she’s wronged the most, and once she’s tried to accomplish that, she’ll go down the rest of the ladder,” explained Scorpia, before her best friend’s words could even possibly be taken out of context. It didn’t help that the brunette had not even given them any context in the first place. And you’re just not at the top.”

“Who is?” asked Bow, but he had a feeling that he already knew the answer.

“Adora,” chorused both girls at once, confirming his silent theory. 

“Can I ask you for something?” asked Catra. The non sequitur came across as the least weird detail of the entire day, so nobody questioned it. The boy nodded at her to continue.

“Sure... well,” he said. “Depends on what it is. What, do you want me to give you a ride out of here? I can’t exactly do that.”

Bow was expecting to get a snarky, sarcastic response, not unlike some of the ones he’s heard the girl spit out mid battle, but instead, he was once again confronted with the odd, serious side to her that he had never really gotten the chance to know.

Even if he had been expecting her to stay sincere, (which she was planning on doing, even if he didn’t know that,) he wouldn’t have expected for her to look him straight in the eye, shake her head, and ask him to promise something that he was just not sure he could go along with.

“You can’t tell anyone that I’m alive.”


	14. are you ready for it?

“You guys! I need to talk to you  right now.”

“Can it wait?” asked Glimmer, who was apparently neglecting to recognize what the term ‘right now’ was supposed to mean. She was buzzing around her bedroom like a little busy bee, throwing things around the room as she dug through her ginormous closet. Despite the fact that she was an actual princess, and the only heir to Bright Moon’s throne, she owned an abysmal amount of formalwear. She actually had a dress prepared for the All-Princess Prom just recently. Reaching in and grabbing just that would be infinitely easier and likely more efficient, too, but she’s nothing if not unpredictable. So, searching she went. “I’m kind of busy at the moment!”

“Busy... destroying your bedroom?” Bow asked hesitantly. He got an old dress thrown at his face for his efforts. “Because that’s what this looks like.”

“That’s not what I’m doing!” protested Glimmer. Without pausing, she threw a poofy old gown over her shoulder. This time, though, the clothing item hit a grumpy Adora in the head instead. 

Neither of them would have noticed that the blonde was even there in the first place if she hadn’t picked some unknown object up and immediately threw it in Glimmer’s direction, clearly attempting to retaliate. 

“Ow!” the small girl exclaimed as the sheet of fluff successfully hit its mark. “How the heck does someone make a  pillow  hurt? How freaking powerful can you get? Geez!” She threw the aforementioned pillow back at her momentarily smug friend. “You and your stupid She-Ra super strength. It never ends with you, does it?”

I’m strong without She-Ra, thank you very much,  the older girl wrote out, huffing indignantly due to what she inaccurately assumed was an a dig at her. I always have been. Ask anybody that I used to know! Lonnie, Rogelio, and Kyle can confirm.

“Uh, why would we do that? Everybody that you used to know are our enemies now.”

She didn’t answer that, or at least not verbally- she just huffed some more and crossed her arms. She then nodded and rolled her eyes in a silent show of, ‘shut up, I know this already.’ 

“But seriously guys, I have to talk to you about something. It’s important,” frowned Bow. Something in the teenager’s voice must have clued the other two into the fact that he truly was not playing around. They momentarily paused what they were doing to pay attention to him.

With all eyes on Bow, the boy sighed, shook his head, opened his mouth, and-

“Hey, losers.”

“DANG IT!” 

“Wow,” drawled Mermista with a small shake of her head, “I thought you’d be a bit more pleased to see me. Especially since, you know, we’ve planned for me to come over today. And literally two hours ago on the phone you gushed about how excited you are for tonight.”

“Shoot,” he said wholeheartedly, with zero hesitation.

He ignored the tall (in comparison to certain people, at least,) girl. Especially as she frowned, exasperated by his language... or lack thereof. “Can’t you ever just curse like a normal person? I’m pretty sure that you’ve never said a real ‘bad word’ even once in your life.”

“Are any of us  really  normal people?” asked Raeley, who was glued to the water princess’ side as per usual. “What is normal, really? Doesn’t that just depend on one’s perspective? Doesn’t the definition of the word vary by person, anyway?”

“Oh, would you look at that. We have a little philosopher on our hands. Almost smart enough for us to send her off to school and everything.”

The tiny brunette peered up at her friend, expression innocent and open. “What’s that?”

Mermista wasn’t the only one that groaned, but she certainly was the loudest of the four.

“Are you  kidding me-“

“I am,” the little girl interjected before the taller brunette could  really  get going. Out of everyone in her friend group, Mermista was the one most legendary for going on rants on just about anything that could possibly enrage her. Glimmer, though. She was a very close second. “I’m kidding you, of course I am. I know what  school  is, goodness. Haven’t we had this talk before? Anyway... Speaking of which- not that I’m complaining or anything, because I’m totally not, don’t get me wrong- don’t I have schoolwork that I need to be doing? I’ve been here for a while now and I haven’t done a thing.”

“That’s not true. I’ve taught you things. Important ones!”

“Yeah, things that will help me in a war, maybe,” Raeley shrugged as if this was no big matter at all.

We’re in a war. What do you expect from us here?  wrote out Adora, scowling. 

“Uh, maybe to do at least some things that a normal kid my age would do? I feel like my life is something out of a novel.”

Good luck with that. Besides, even if there were no battles to be fought, almost none of us here actually know what it’s like to be a normal kid, whatever that is.

“Almost all of us in the Princess Alliance were somehow a part of royalty the second that we were even born,” Glimmer acknowledged with a quick nod of her head. “Before the war and the whole thing with the Horde, we were constantly being trained in every subject under the sun. You know, so we’d be more prepared to be a queen when the time comes.” At that, she paused, struck by a sudden thought. “Come to think of it, I’m probably going to be the only princess that  won’t  have a big coronation.”

“That’s the big ceremony that you would need to become queen, right?”

“Right,” she nodded again. “But, y’know, my mom is immortal, so...”

“Are  you  immortal?” Raeley, suddenly intrigued, needed to know. Her excitement was obvious. Even if she had not been bouncing on the balls of her feet, (which she was,) just taking one look at her wide, expressive eyes would have sealed the deal either way. 

“I don’t know. I don’t really care to find out right about now.”

Correction, began Adora suddenly. That makes two of us. If you think about it, I won’t end up becoming a queen either. 

“I always forget that you’re a princess, Adora!”

“I don’t,” Glimmer shook her head, looking her blonde BFF up and down. “It’s kind of hard to forget.”

“Plus she turns into an eight-feet-tall warrior woman,” Mermista stated the obvious. “Even if she hasn’t exactly done it for a while.”

I’ve been busy, leave me alone.

“Busy with what, exactly? You haven’t left this building in who knows how long? Weeks, probably. At least. And at the risk of sounding like Perfuma, I gotta tell you, that’s not healthy.”

Oh, cry me a river. I’m doing just fine. You could just stay out of my business, you know.

“Oh no, here we go,” mumbled Bow lowly. Adora was being snappy before he could even get his announcement out. _If she gets in an argument and gets herself all riled up now,_ he thought, _I have almost no chance of getting through to her before we make it to the prom._

After all, there wasn’t even a day left before the prom for the girls to spend the time needed to simmer down, especially if things got ugly. That potentially lead to a very bad combination... and that was  before  the male remembered the fact that they had just hit Catra’s two month “death” anniversary.

_And she wasn’t even dead. _

_And she was going to their prom._

They were going to see her in just about five hours, and that’s if they got lucky enough to avoid her for a few hours once the party actually got started. 

_Fuck, _ thought Bow, who only cursed when a situation was so particularly (potentially) catastrophic that he had no better way to shift through and/or digest his thoughts. He took another look around the room and surveyed the tense scene once again.

Adora, shiny eyed and frowning as she furiously scribbled away at her rapidly filling notebook. Mermista, both concerned over her friend’s emotional (and physical) health, while at the same time looking ready to yank her metaphorical hoops out of her ears- both girls totally ready to start a fight. Raeley, staring at the group in honest confusion, unable to comprehend how things went from ten to fifty in just a few seconds. Then there was Glimmer, filing through her closet once again, attempting to ignore everything and stay out of the way.

Bow sighed. 

_We are so screwed._


	15. we both are so excited, ‘cause we’re reunited.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The All-Princess Ball finally arrives! Bow tries one last time to tell Adora the news he has, and poor Adora is in for QUITE a shock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we’re at the hecking midpoint, folks!! Y’all excited? Let me know what you thought about this chapter!

Adora had never seen anything like it before. 

Streamers and balloons lined the tall walls of the (probably not as used as it should have been) war room as a disco ball cascaded down from the top of the ceiling, sparkly and fun and bright. Accompanying it was a new photo booth standing tall right near the room’s entrance. To top it all off, there was something not quite a buffet, but the large spread of food was remarkably similar. Beside it, a bit off to the side, stood a full, tall glass of fruit punch, with various other beverages along the way.

Glimmer came striding up next to Adora, nodding her wholehearted agreement as the blonde stared wonderingly out at the set up in front of her. 

“I know, right? When Bright Moon parties, we party  hard.  This probably isn’t even half of what we have planned for tonight.”

She gaped, surprised. _How could there possibly be more?_

“You look so great, by the way, ‘Dora.” Glimmer, draped in a purple, bejeweled dress, grinned as she reached out to caress the muted red fabric of her best friend’s tracksuit. “This is  so  your color. You should wear it more often.”

The two girls stood there for just a few seconds more, basking in their excitement and beaming in anticipation for what the night could possibly bring.

The moment couldn’t last forever, though, no matter how nice that would be.

“Guys!” a panicked call reached their ears as Bow came colliding out of who-knows-where. “Guys. I need to talk to you.”

“Can’t it  wait?  We want to have fun! I need to teach Adora how to dance! Like, I know that she danced at the Princess Prom last year, but it never hurts to improve!”

“No, this can’t wait,” he fervently denied. “You don’t understand. This has been waiting for... well, for a few days now. And you need to know before you head in there and find something- or someone- that you might not really want to see-“

“Hey, losers.” Mermista, unaware of his dilemma, came striding up to the group with all of her usual smoothness. Her steady stare flickered as she shot each member of the trio a calculated up-and-down look. “You’re late.”

“They’re ‘fashionably late’” remarked Frosta, her voice filled with her usual dry sarcasm. She was dressed in a short, icy blue party dress. Instead of being dressed to impress for a fancy event, she looked as if she was only half trying, which was probably not very far off from the truth. (Plus, sure, she was a princess, which generally included large parties and banquets and fanfare, but all of that usually occurred when they  weren’t  in the middle of a messy, complicated war- so, all that is to say that the small twelve-year old was not prepared for the more glamorous part of being in charge. The All-Princess Ball was the most she’d have.)

“Fashionably late is better than not showing up at all.”

“Of course you’re going to say that, Mermista; you hate everything so much it’s a miracle that you showed up today at all.”

“Yeah,” the girl agreed blandly, choosing to ignore the dig. “But it’s better than showing up like, five hours early to an event that isn’t even being held in one’s own kingdom, like you did.”

“Well it’s better than-“

Bow wisely decided to tune them out and focus all his energy on a last ditch effort to tell Adora the truth about her psychotic, (Glimmer’s words, not his,) ex-best friend. (Again, Glimmer had a bit of a different opinion than his on that matter as well.) “Adora, can I talk to you for a minute?” When she only looked at him blankly, hands still and eyes calm, he sighed and tried just a little bit harder. “I need to talk to you  alone.  It’s important.”

Much to his relief, the blonde finally turned her attention away from the decorations and two of her bickering friends. 

All eyes on me,  thought Bow as he lead the two of them toward the fruit punch, over where things were somewhat quieter. He would have figured that the area would have been a lot more packed than it actually was, but- he realized as he looked around- there was a DJ off in one of the corners announcing something that sounded like, “Ladies and gents, get to the floor! Grab that special someone and hold them tight, because we have a sequence of slow songs coming at ya!”

“Look,” he began as he saw his chance  finally  arrive, “I need to talk to you. It’s about- are you kidding me? What’s distracting you  now?”

He was way too grumpy for the situation, he knew. After all, he didn’t even have bad news to give! It’s just that everyone kept on interrupting him time and time and time again, and the one time he was  positive  he could get through to his best friend, she wasn’t even paying attention to him any more.

Resisting the urge to sigh as heavily as his lungs would allow, he reluctantly followed Adora’s stunned gaze.

Standing on the far opposite end of the war room, back toward the entrance and the photo booth beside it, stood a well dressed young woman. She wore her poofy, long brown hair almost like a halo around her head, almost as if it was an accessory meant to enhance her clothing. Adding on to that, she wore a long, red dress with a short slit on the left side. All in all though, cast and crutches included, she came across as a perfectly normal, almost uninteresting girl to anyone who didn’t know any better.

But.

But as he recognized the teenager as the exact person he was attempting to break some very special news about, Bow couldn’t help but think  you have got to be kidding me... this was what I was afraid of.

Then, as if things couldn’t possibly get any more absurd- 

Adora pushed past Bow, opened and closed her mouth once, twice, and a solid three times, before doing the previously unthinkable.

She opened her mouth and spoke in a shocked, low whisper.

“..._Catra?”_

Catra, with all eyes on her, did nothing but smirk.

“Hey, Adora.”


	16. i blame it on my own sick pride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora is still in shock. She and Catra (but mostly Catra) finally talk. There is dipping and quite a bit of close proximity involved, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m posting this less than 2 hours before May 12 so I think it counts
> 
> SHE-RA SEASON 5 IS IN F O U R DAYS HOW WE FEELIN FOLKS?

“Catra,” Adora blankly repeated, still shocked over the fact that her ex-best friend was not dead at all, and never was, but was instead alive and relatively well. She wouldn’t dare rip her eyes away from the other teenager, just on that principle alone. “You-“

“I’m alive,” the brunette confirmed, as if Adora couldn’t see that with  her own two eyes, thank you very much.  “I’m going to be okay.”

_Why didn’t you call me? Why didn’t you show me that you were alive, at the very least? I knew that things have been bad between us for a while now, but for goodness sake, I didn’t know that we sunk so low that you wanted me to think you were dead. And why did I never even stop to suspect that things weren’t exactly as they seemed? I know better than that, and I know what the Horde can do when they’re motivated enough, no matter if it’s their own captain that they’re hurting or not. I should have done something. I should have said something. I should have been more suspicious. I should have-_

“Hey. You in there?”

Adora quickly found her thoughts interrupted as the reason for her spiraling gently tapped at her forehead, not unlike how she had done while trying to catch the blonde’s attention when they were nothing more than a couple of distracted little kids. 

She managed to nod. She opened her mouth to speak, to question the concerned look in her ex-best friend’s eyes, but her mouth was far too dry to say anything. The whole two words she just spoke began dragging her down. The mere effort of them was a lot harder to manage than she had been anticipating.

Judging by the squinted eyes as Catra dragged the two of them off toward the other well decorated side of the war room, she picked up on that. She wasted no time in demanding, “Okay, talk now.”

Adora didn’t. Desperately regretting that she had not had the foresight to bring along her favorite pad of paper and pen, she did nothing but self consciously wave.

Of course, just her luck, that didn’t go unnoticed either.

“What was that?”

“I think she waved,” Scorpia unhelpfully chimed in. Someone in the background- it looked to be Bow- dragged her out of earshot before she could say anything more.

Adora shrugged.

“Why aren’t you talking to me? Are you so mad at me that you won’t even speak? Look, I know that it really wasn’t cool that I came across as dead, but it wasn’t exactly my idea, okay?” Catra ended her sentence with a groan.

“How?” she managed to ask. 

“The Horde are the ones who attacked me. I think some of the younger cadets started smack talking around some of the older force captains, who then took the gossip to Hordak, who then...” the brunette motioned downwards at herself, and more specifically, down at her cast and crutches. “This happened. Friendly fire. My therapist gave me some long winded theory as to why, but I personally think that they’re all just completely insane.”

Adora raised an eyebrow upwards in a silent question. Whatever it was that she wondering about, she didn’t specify.

“Not sure what you’re asking me about, because you won’t freaking  speak,  but I’ll take a stab at it anyway. Yes, I have a therapist, somehow. I’m beginning to learn that it’s a really bad idea to underestimate Razz. Yes, the Horde tried to kill me. Fun! And, no. I’m not with them anymore.”

Adora sighed. “Fun,” she drily echoed. “Therapist.”

“Yeah. We’ve established this. Literally two seconds ago.”

The princess shook her head and pointed a finger inwards toward herself. “Therapist,” she repeated. 

“Well I know that you aren’t a therapist. You have too many issues for that.” She paused. “You have one too, then?”

Bingo.  Then, in what had to be one of the most blunt, least romantic questions that Adora could remember asking- “Dance, Catra?”

“Yeah, I’ll take this dance.” 

With a roll of her eyes, Catra grabbed at Adora’s hand, spun them both around once, and lead them into what looked to be a more modern, dramatic two step. She swished and swirled them off closer and closer toward a background cascading of purple, pink, and blue wallpaper. The nearer they got to one another- and to the wall- the more they stood out amongst the crowd.

(Despite their best efforts.)

“Everyone is staring at us,” Catra, who was usually one of the most show-stopping and flamboyant people that either of them ever knew, seemed more irritated at the extra attention than anything else, which was definitely a new one. “This is not how I pictured our reunion.” When all she got was a blank stare, she continued on. “Yeah, I imagined our reunion. I wasn’t expecting you to be so furious at me that you wouldn’t even  speak,  though.”

Adora sighed. “Why?”

“Why wasn’t I expecting,” Catra spun Adora out and away from her, then did the complete opposite as she pulled her in close. “This? Because you’ve never done it before.”

“You’re here,” the taller of the two girls said as if this wasn’t obvious, as if she hadn’t been clinging to her ex for the past ten minutes. “With me.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because,” Catra released her vice grip on Adora’s hands. She stepped back and away from her, as if to give her space. 

It was not appreciated.

Adora, without any hesitation, yanked her closer than she ever had been just mere minutes ago, and they had both been very close indeed. The song switched over to something that was (somehow) even slower than the last one had been. Loosely following the rhythm, they swayed. 

“Because I wanted to apologize.”

“...What?”

“I want to apologize,” came the clear repetition. 

“Why now?” asked Adora, who figured that her inquiry was pretty darn valid. 

“In the past I knew that I was in the wrong, especially throughout the last Princess Prom. I shouldn’t have done any of it- flirted with you, messed with your head, dragged you hypothetically through the mud, kidnapped your friends- and that’s a whole separate conversation on it’s own- but that’s beside the point. I was... upset, I think.”

“Obviously,” came the blunt response. “Continue.”

“I was upset that you left me.”

“I- no-“

“Yes, you did, but I get it now. I’m still mad at you-“ she cut herself off, scoffing. “Hell, Adora, I’m still  furious  at you, but I’m starting to realize that being mad at you while you’re still in my life is a lot better than being mad when you  aren’t. ”

“Wow.”  She really did get therapy, huh... wait, is that something I should be doing too?

“I know things are never going to go back to how they used to be,” Catra said, as if this wasn’t the understatement of the year. She pitched her head forward just slightly, kicked her leg backwards, and listened carefully for the end of whatever slow song the DJ was playing. “But... I want to fix it. I’m game if you are-“

The music began to die down, a low crescendo humming in the air. The two teenager’s red suit and red dress blended in abnormally well with the outstanding purple, blue, and pink background.

“-And I’m really sorry for everything.”

With that said and done, Catra dipped Adora.

(They both dutifully ignored Glimmer’s loud cry of, _oh please, not this shit again._ )

By that point, the previous slow song had cut out and faded away entirely, leaving behind an up tempo, hyperactive scramble of lyrics and, oddly enough, high pitched beeping noises. It was like techno crossed with mumbled rap, leaving behind a jumbled mess that had gone horribly wrong.

“Why aren’t you saying anything? I know you’re probably mad, but you haven’t said more than two words at a time to me since I got here. So. Please? Look, I’m even saying please. I’m being nice.”

She got nothing in return.

Groaning, Catra exclaimed, “Just say something already! You know, more than two words at a time would be really nice. You’re starting to freak me out!”

Adora scowled bitterly and exited her silent state of being. “I can’t,” she croaked out. 

“What do you mean you  can’t? ”

“I can’t,” she repeated, shaking her head. “My voice...” she trailed off, shaking her head for a second time.

“Your voice isn’t working? You’re tired? Your  voice  is tired? You lost your voice entirely? ‘Dora, I need some info here.”

If anyone noticed that the brunette used a cutesy and, admittedly sweet sounding  nickname, they made no indication of it.

Adora, perhaps out of spite, did nothing but huff.

(This, perhaps, was not a good idea.)

“You!” Catra called out to the room at large. “Can anyone help her out over here? Does anyone have any punch?”

Adora blinked somewhat incredulously.  My ex comes back from the dead after two months, gives me an oddly sincere sounding apology, dances with me without a motive for the first time since we were ten years old, and acts all concerned about me like there’s no bad blood between us? And now she’s demanding punch? She doesn’t even like punch!

“What?” the shorter of the two demanded as someone indulged her with- you guessed it- a cup full of fruit punch. “Why are you staring at me?” She took a large gulp full of it, despite the fact that she doesn’t even like the drink. Perhaps she was trying to entice the princess into drinking it, but really, there were about seven (at the minimum) other ways that would have worked out better. 

Adora never drank the punch.

So that’s how they spent the next two hours- singing and swaying and drinking much less fruity flavored drinks, talking and walking and dancing. It was the most peaceful and civil that they had been toward each other in over two years. 

It was as perfect as it had ever been for them, honestly.

With the two’s hands on one another, crushing the other one close, with the only fight and/or argument resulting over inconsequential issues such as cake flavors, they (probably) couldn’t be any content in that moment if they had tried.

Sure, they still had problems. They still had a truck load of problems, but at least they were finally inching their way toward a position where they could actually start working through it instead of letting it fester or letting it burn. That, though, could wait for another day. So they continued on, relishing in their momentary peace.

Then Glimmer spoke up and ruined it.


	17. rock and roll, everybody let’s lose control.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glimmer struggles to accept that Catra is alive and did not, in fact, fake her own death. In the process, she says something that she really shouldn’t have.

“Are you fucking  kidding  me?”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about, Sparkles,” Catra responded in a tone of voice that was a lot calmer than her typical one. Her eyes weren’t even focused on her so called “enemy.” She was too busy watching poor Adora, who had gone from merely croaking to hacking up half a lung. 

It’s a miracle that  more  people weren’t ogling her, honestly. Catra’s bared teeth and unconsciously sharpening claws might have been the very thing that persuaded potential onlookers to keep their focus elsewhere. The fact that she was adhering to her ex best friend like wallpaper on a- well, wall- didn’t really hurt matters either.

Unless, of course, you’re Glimmer.

In that case, you might be thinking differently about this warming show of solidarity.

“What the  fuck  is this?” The bright haired girl continued exclaiming, motioning wildly at the minuscule amount of space remaining in between the other two teenagers. “Did you just fucking run off and get hitched while Bow and I weren’t looking? Or is it worse than that and you two have been sneaking around behind my back exchanging your best kept secrets or something? Do either of you care to explain yourselves? 

Catra paused. Adora hesitated.

“This isn’t what it looks like,” they chorused, still wrapped up in one another. 

“Oh yeah?” Glimmer crossed her arms. “Then what do you call... whatever it is that you two are doing now?”

“We aren’t together anymore! We’re not even friends yet, we’re just getting to know each other again!” explained one of the two while the other went, “Cuddling. Dancing!”

“You can talk!” The second Adora spoke, Catra consciously decided that Glimmer was no longer worth listening to. As a matter of fact, Catra wasn’t even looking at Glimmer anymore- she was still staring at her favorite blonde princess. “You don’t look like you’re about to die anymore, which is good. Actually, speaking of which...”

Before she could round on anyone and start ranting- which was definitely something she intended to do- Bow intercepted her.

“If anyone needs to talk, how about we grab some snacks, sit down, and have a nice, civilized conversation?”

The three girls stared back at him incredulously, as if anyone asking them to have peace with one another was just something that wasn’t going to happen. 

Adora broke the silence. “Yeah. No.”

Catra grinned. “That’s my girl.” 

“...Your girl?”

“Duh.” She grinned even brighter, studiously ignoring the light brush that had begun spreading across her face.

“This is not the time for you dumbasses to stand around and flirt with one another!” screeched out Glimmer, who had apparently lost every modicum of her patience. “You!” she pointed at Adora, who was holding onto her ex-best friend’s hand, looking as carefree as Glimmer had ever seen her. “This is  not  the time to go fraternizing with the enemy!”

“Fraternizing?” the teenagers echoed cluelessly. Adora made a face at the end and seemed to be holding her breath; Catra disappeared and materialized out of thin air, clutching a red solo cup filled to the brim with what looked to be water. She wasted no time in chucking it at the taller girl, who fumbled around and just barely managed to catch it before it could spill all over her feet.

“ Really?”  she croaked out. 

“Well, drink it. And maybe don’t die.”

“SHUT UP!” Glimmer shrieked out, dismayed by how little anyone was listening to her. “Fraternizing is  this!”  she motioned wildly in between Catra and Adora, both of whom were once again not paying much attention to her at all. “It’s not allowed! Stop! You can’t like each other! One of you has tried to kill the other like, multiple times! If you don’t step away from each other  right now,  I will punch you both in the face so hard that you’ll be begging for mercy.”

Catra smirked, utterly unconcerned. She clutched the girl beside her a bit tighter. “Bring it, Sparkles.”

Glimmer stepped closer. “Don’t try me. I swear I’ll do it-“

“OKAY!” Bow, making his reappearance, instantly jumped in between the two. “No blood on the carpets!”

Catra frowned. “But we aren’t on any carpets. We’re standing on a bunch of tiles.”

“NO BLOOD ON THE FLOOR! That goes for any of you!”

Adora shrugged and held her hands up in the air, a clear show of  I only bring you peace. 

“Am I understood?”

“Sure,” the blonde said. She was the only one that did so, and it did not go unnoticed.

“Glimmer?” he asked, voice low. “Catra? Do either of you care to comment?”

The duo paused.

“I don’t want you in Bright Moon,” the princess spoke up first, which was obviously not a yes. 

“You don’t have any say in the matter,” retorted Catra calmly. She was so calm it was almost disconcerting. She, for once, had no intent to fight. She barely had any intent on arguing, even. 

(Okay, maybe some.)

“The hell I don’t! Are you forgetting who you’re talking to?” 

“Are you forgetting who  you’re  talking to? You’re the one who’s not using her brain here, Sparkles. Look, until tomorrow, or whenever the heck this stupid ball even ends, Bright Moon is neutral ground. On top of that, I’m here as a plus one, so I’m even following the rules- technically, you can’t even kick me out.”

“That’s unless you start something like you did last time. And the second you do, I’m throwing you out of here so quickly that you won’t even be able to catch your breath.”

“Oh, you mean like Adora can’t?”

“Hey,” the aforementioned girl protested weakly. She was ignored. Bow pushed past her to get closer to the bickering Catra and Glimmer.

Speaking of, the latter of which retorted with- “What are you on? She’s perfectly fine. Well, when she’s not sticking like glue or fighting  you,  anyway.”

“She’s not  fine.  Something is honestly wrong, and that’s not an insult so don’t you even begin with me. She’s speaking two words at a time, if that. That’s not  fine,  so fuck you. You’re one of her new best friends now,” that was said with a surprisingly small amount of bitterness, “So shouldn’t you watch out for her and be aware of when things go wrong? You’re saying that I’m still her enemy- which, yeah, I  used  to be, I have no problems in admitting,

but I’m not working with the Horde or even working against  you  anymore, and you damn well know it- but you’re not purposely misunderstanding me. If I’m the enemy, then why am I the only personhere that’s actually trying to help Adora?”

Bow stepped a bit closer, yet again. Glimmer did nothing but blink at first, thoroughly startled.

When the latter of the two did speak, it was short and straight to the point. 

“She hasn’t been talking because she’s been too busy mourning over  you.”

Catra didn’t verbally respond to that right away; instead, she reared back as if struck.

“Are you really so dense that you believe I would fake my own death? I know we’ve fought before, but do you really think I’m  that  heartless?”

Glimmer crossed her arms. “For all I know, you’d be perfectly willing to do worse than that.”

“Stop,” Adora tried her best to call out, to interrupt them before things could go too far, too quickly. 

It did nothing.

“If you care to know, the Horde tried to kill me.”

“You’re acting as if this never could have happened before, and I bet if it ever had, you wouldn’t have left. So, what’s the difference? What would change now?”

“I have a reason to stay away now.”

“You had a reason to leave back then, I’m sure.”

“This is different.”

“How?” Glimmer asked, shaking her head. “How is this time any different than before? You say that you’re not with the Horde now, sure, but what makes you so sure that you won’t just do a full 180 and join them all over again, attacking us in the process?”

Catra sighed. “I am literally  on your side.  Stop arguing, let me go my own way, you can go yours, and we can enjoy the last few hours of the party without even acknowledging each other’s existence. Got it?”

Without waiting on an answer, she grabbed Adora’s wrist, (Adora shrugged, waved at Bow, and easily went along with it,) and headed off to go grab some food. (Bow’s previous idea about snacks was not a bad one at all, and if Catra wasn’t so mad she probably would have forced herself to man up and admit it.)

“You were with the Horde, Catra. You ditched them, which, if you’re telling the truth, is very good, but that doesn’t erase everything. You could turn on us at any minute.”

Catra didn’t pause, just called back a response over her shoulder. “Are you saying this as a personal thing or as a “oh no the Horde is bad we can’t ever trust them” thing? Because one of those things is going to get you punched in the mouth, and I’m not telling you which.”

“I would have thought it was obvious.”

“Well, it fucking better be because of a personal issue that you have with me.”

Glimmer scowled. “And why? Why would you  want  my accusations to be against you, personally? Wouldn’t anyone with half a brain want it to be the complete  opposite?”

“So, let me get this straight.” Catra continued talking, ignoring the other girl’s previous words entirely. She started slowing down. Adora, on the other hand, started speeding up. It ended up leaving them at an impasse, seeing as both girls were determined to stick together one way or another. “You think that, just because I was with the Horde and turned my back on them, I’m just automatically going to turn around and do the same to you? Once with the Horde always with the Horde in your eyes, right?”

Glimmer, not thinking, exclaimed:

“Yes!”

The whole group stopped. 

“What the fuck are you  thinking,”  hissed out Bow, who realized what was wrong with his best friend’s response the very second she said it out loud. “Oh my  gosh.  Are you out of your mind?”

“What?” came the defensive sounding reply. When all she got was a wide eyed, dumbfounded stare, she repeated herself. “ What,  Bow? Why are you staring at me like that?”

“Do you just... not realize what’s wrong with what you just said? Did you not think that through at all?”

“Of course she didn’t,” scoffed out Catra, who slowly but surely started getting over her surprise. She shot straight from startled to offended in mere seconds. “When does she ever?”

“Well, I’m not exactly worried about offending you, Catra,” Glimmer instantly shot back. 

She was expecting some snarky response; she wasn’t expecting the brunette to glower and motion over at the always silent Adora. 

Glimmer scowled. “What are you getting at, here?”

She got her answer when Adora said,

“Really, Glimmer?  Seriously?” 

“What?!”

“How could- wow.” 

“Why are you all so  mad  at me? You all know that I don’t get along with Catra! I’d expect Adora to tag along with her, but not you too, Bow!”

“It isn’t even about her anymore!”

“How is it not-“

“Did it  ever,”  Catra interrupted, voice low and just short of snarling, “Occur to you that Adora was a part of the Horde for only a year or so less than I was? Or did that just slip your mind because she can become all tall and sparkly now?”

“Convenient,” Bow mumbled out sarcastically, not even close to pleased.

“Wha.... oh.” If the three people weren’t staring at Glimmer as intently as they had been, they wouldn’t have been able to pinpoint the exact moment that realization hit her. “OH! I... said something really dumb, there, didn’t I?”

As Catra and Adora walked away for real this time, hand in hand, all Bow could do was sigh.


	18. bang bang bang (here we go.)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra decides that it’s time to begin investigating the attack on Raeley’s village. Glimmer and Adora are still at odds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello I did not mean to not update this for a month is anyone still reading this

“So, we’re in agreement here?”

“As much as we can be, I guess,” Adora grumbled back to Catra. It had been two weeks since the duo reunited, and things had gone approximately a thousand times better than either one of them had been dreaming of. Even so- or maybe even because of that- they kept waiting for more than one or two petty little arguments to kick up, more than one or two discussions that definitely had the potential to go badly but in the end had not, and they most  definitely  had not been expecting themselves to fall back into old habits so easily. 

One of those old habits included bugging each other for seemingly no reason at all. Catra was having a grand ol’ time with that one, but eventually even she saw the necessity of getting down to business- especially this particular bit of it. Catra, upon getting the low down of who Raeley was- even though she had yet to actually meet the little girl- found it seemingly odd that it was that that one village was attacked out of nowhere, on a normal day, for no discernible reason, only for none of the nearby others to even be looked at strangely. 

“This had to be premeditated,” Catra determined. “The attack on the village. You said it was the Horde?”

“Had to have been. Even if I didn’t get any proof on my own, Raeley says that it was.”

“She was there, wasn’t she? Always good to have a primary source around.”

“Not just  that,”  Adora sighed. “It’s also because I trust her.”

Catra shrugged and looked away, fiddling with a well placed piece of paper. “Yeah, well, trust is a fickle thing.”

Before that, Adora had been aimlessly pacing around the room, but at that declaration, she paused. “What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“I mean, just look at the Horde. Remember when we were young and almost innocent, back when we didn’t know that things were going to become like...” she motioned around them, at the wide open space. The castle stood proud and strong behind them, almost as a reference point. “...Like this? You used to really trust them, Adora. At one point, a long, long time ago, I managed it too. Now, neither of us care whether they live or die.” 

“That’s not true,” Adora weakly protested. “I- we care.”

“Bullshit. We trust them as far as we can throw them, and your most critical hits toward current Horde members are when you’re  not  an eight-feet-tall Amazon woman.”

“What’s an Amazon woman?”

Catra, at the unexpected voice, jumped about two feet in the air. She whipped around so quickly that she very nearly lost her footing all over again. “Who the fu-“

The curse died on her lips. Standing directly in front of her, (since she’s turned around,)!short and stout and trying not to shout, is what is essentially a less than five-feet-tall, bushy haired, child version of herself.

She didn’t dare look back at Adora as she stared unblinkingly at the brunette who had yet to be introduced.

“You missed me so much in our two months apart that you went ahead and got yourself a mini-me?”

“I did no such thing,” Adora replied amusedly, but the resemblance is uncanny. 

“No. No no no, that... that looks exactly like me.” Cautiously, Catra crept closer, resisting the urge to poke at the little girl who seemed to materialize out of thin air. “Are you a clone? Or a shapeshifter? Because trust me, those exist, and for all I know, you’re one of them.”

“She’s with me. Stay down.” Adora not-so-subtly pushed her friend backwards. “There’s nothing to worry about. This is just Raeley. She’s not a shapeshifter, I promise.”

“Well, either way, can she stop looking like me? It’s getting a little weird.”

“ You  look like  me,  not the other way around,” came Raeley’s rebuttal. “Like Adora said, my name is Raeley. Who are you and why are you here?”

Catra squinted, still not sure of the other girl or of her intentions. “I’m Catra. I’m here in Bright Moon investigating a possibly premeditated Horde attack.”

“Was it on a village south from here?”

“Yeah... wait, why would you know that? You’re like, two-years-old. Why should you care?”

“Assuming people’s age is a bad idea,” Adora warned helpfully, but it was too late. 

“I lived there.  That’s  why I care. I bet I have more compassion in my left arm than you have in your whole body.”

Catra scoffed, looking Raeley up and down. “Well, you’re so little that my arm might be  bigger  than my your whole body.”

“What kind of throw down is this?” Glimmer made her appearance, standing behind a tired looking Bow and a snappish Mermista. The latter of which seemed to be keeping watch over something- or someone. “I came out here expecting a fight.”

What she was  not  expecting was for Adora to pick up her head, pull her hands up higher so she could tighten her ponytail some more, and to look her straight in the eye and say, “You wanna have one?”

The teenagers surrounding them immediately hushed. 

Bow stepped away from Glimmer, surveying the scene nervously, as if he truly did expect the girls to just drop everything and start pounding on one another. It didn’t happen. Not like the way he was picturing, at least. 

“You want to fight me?” Glimmer asked, sounding almost hurt. 

“Well, you kind of started it the other day when you said ‘Oh, well, once a Horde member always a Horde member!’”

“But that was  weeks  ago!” the bright-headed girl proclaimed. It didn’t seem to make much of an impression on any of the others, however- not even Bow. “I’m not seeing the problem.”

“Look,” Catra cut in loudly. “We don’t have time for this little, petty argument. You two can rip each other apart later, but for now we have to get along long enough to investigate. Got it?”

Everyone stared. Catra, being the only voice of reason? Did they just enter an alternate universe? The Twilight Zone galore?

“Yeah, yeah, get over it,” she grumbled with a sigh. “Let’s get to work.”


	19. you’re talking to me like a child, hey I’ve got news I’m not a little girl.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angella and Glimmer have a talk about what needs to be done in regards to their prisoner, Shadow Weaver. Glimmer demands strict restrictions. Angella... tries to make her daughter see her reasoning.

“It’s been four hours. Do we really not have any sort of game plan?”

“Unfortunately, no. We don’t.” Queen Angella sighed. She pushed forward, past her daughter, without saying anything else. Glimmer refused to let the matter sit unsettled, so she heaved a sigh and trotted along behind her.

“Mom, how can we not have a plan? This is  Shadow Weaver.  We can’t just... leave her unchecked! She needs to be punished.”

“And she will be. She’s in the Bright Moon jail right now.”

Glimmer blinked, almost incredulously. “...That’s it?” She didn’t wait for a response before bursting out with, “That can’t just be it! We need to do more than that! I can help you do more than that. How long is she even going to be in there, anyway? A day? A week? A year?  Forever?”

Angella, foregoing an answer, placed her hand up to silence her daughter. Miraculously, it worked. “I am the queen, alright? This is my business, not yours.”

“But it  could  be. I’m the princess! I’ll have your job someday, won’t I? And what if you aren’t around one day- like, let’s say that you’re off doing something against the Horde, or you’re in some stuffy old meeting or something- and there’s a problem that I need to handle? What am I supposed to do if I don’t have you to fall back on, then? What would I do if I _don’t know what to do?”_

“I admire the effort that you’re putting into this, but it’s not working. I’m still in charge here. You don’t need to be involved.” Angella tried to infuse her voice with the sort of motherly authority that she’d grown quite good at, but on this particular matter, it fell short. “You’re simply too young.” 

Glimmer kept arguing. She seemed to disregard the age comment entirely. “But I am involved!”

“The war effort-“

“Not about the war effort! This is about that- that hag, and what she’s done to hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent kids.  Shadow Weaver,”  not unlike the last time she said it, she spitted out the name like it was poison, “ Traumatized  a buttload of children for their entire lives, leaving them with no way out and with nowhere else to go! And then, if they somehow, luckily, manage to escape, then they come out of it totally convinced that everything that happened to them is expected and normal. It’s something they’re used to, and damn it, something that they think they deserve! It’s not right! So,  please.  You can’t just let her get away with, what, a lifetime of abuse? Maybe I’m exaggerating on that last part, but I’m probably not. She’s been doing this for longer than I’ve been alive, which is long enough, in my personal opinion. So, even if it wasn’t a lifetime, she still did it. And she doesn’t have any remorse for it, either. She doesn’t  care  about what she does to others. How are you and I any better than her if we don’t do something about it?”

After her long winded rant, the room was silent.

“...You have a point,” was the first thing that Angella can say. She stared down at her daughter, eyes full of pure, unbridled pride. “...But things aren’t quite so simple or quite so black and white as you put it. Sometimes we can see bad things being done without having the ability to immediately stop it. That doesn’t automatically make us bad people, Glimmer.”

“That doesn’t mean that we can’t try our hardest to make a change anyway!”

“Instances like the ones you’re referring to can be complicated and messy and, above of all, delicate. You can’t just barge into Shadow Weaver’s cell and demand her head on a silver platter like I know you undoubtably want to do- don’t think I didn’t see you threaten her earlier this morning.” Angella tried to sternly glare down at her daughter, but she still looked far too proud for her heart to truly be in it. 

“I didn’t  threaten  her,” Glimmer disagreed, but she knew fully well that the accusation wasn’t entirely baseless. Maybe her protest would have rang more truly if she wasn’t glaring down at her feet, avoiding all eye contact, and generally just trying to play dumb. “I just... yelled a little bit. Which is no big deal. I do it all the time.”

“You do,” Angella allowed, before continuing, “But usually, you don’t say, and I quote: ‘I don’t have to listen to this garbage about trade routes and whatever so-called intel you have about my friend’s attacked village. For all I know, you’re trying to trick me. I don’t know how and I don’t know why, but I bet that’s exactly what you’re going to do, so shut up before I throw a spear at your head.’ Then you picked up a sword and twirled it around your foot.” 

“That’s... a really good memory, especially for someone who wasn’t even there.” 

“Quite. The security cameras caught it all,” she explained. “So, naturally, I saw you sneaking in almost as soon as you did it.”

“Then why didn’t you just bust me right then and there?” Glimmer asked, surprised. She knew going into it that she was likely going to get caught- after all, she wasn’t stupid enough to break the very expensive cameras that are watching the very important enemy- but she also didn’t think that she was just going to straight up get away with it, either. She almost asked what her punishment was, but her mother’s facial expression hadn’t changed- so she was probably going to be fine. 

Surely enough-

“I was watching you, and the guards were as well, so I knew that you wouldn’t be able to pull off anything too risky.” She paused. “Also, I was expecting it.”

That made absolutely no sense. “So you knew I was going to sneak into the cell, scream at Shadow Weaver, point a weapon at her, and scurry away, but instead of stopping me, you just... let it happen?”

Angella nodded. “Yes.”

“So... I’m not in trouble?” 

“No, you’re not.”

“Whoa, really? I’ve done similar things before, and you screamed at me over it, but I’m off the hook this time?” She shouldn’t press her luck, she knew, but it was almost too good to be true.

“This is different. For one thing, I never explicitly forbade you from doing so. For another thing, as I’ve already pointed out, you were being safely watched. To top it all off, you aren’t lying to me about it.”

“That’s true. So, I’m guessing that we’re in agreement over not trusting Shadow Weaver?”

“We are.” 

We’re actually agreeing on something,  Glimmer thought incredulously.  That’s something new.  “I want to talk to Adora about this, too. She should get to have a say.”

“She should, yes.”

Whoa. Two for two! 

“Wait,” Angella said, and Glimmer’s heart pounded in her chest. “I thought you and Adora were on the outs.”

“How did you hear about that?”

“I have my sources. So, you’ll talk to Adora?”

Glimmer got the impression that they weren’t on the same page anymore.

“You’re not talking about Shadow Weaver anymore, are you?”

“Well, not mostly. You can do two things at once- get your friend’s input, and apologize to her. Can’t you?”

“Yeah,” Glimmer sighed. “I can do it.”


	20. put my heart on my chest so that you can see it, too.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glimmer mans up and apologizes. Catra snd Adora have a much needed conversation, in which Catra is the more emotionally healthy one for once.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who ghosted this story again?? It’s me, ya girl. Anyone still here? Is this fandom still alive?

“No.”

Adora sighed and shook her head. “I’m not asking for your permission, Catra.”

“When do you ever?” Catra retorted. The cat girl let out a disgruntled sigh as she leaned in closer toward the communication tablet she cradled in her arms. It was a small enough device, on top of being replaceable enough that it didn’t technically need to be handled like a newborn baby, but it was Catra’s main way of talking to Adora, so she figured it was best to handle it with caution.

...Unlike traipsing through the minefield that was discussing Shadow Weaver, that is.

“Well, it’s not like you have any room to talk. Besides, this has nothing to do with you. You don’t have to get all... edgy with me.”

“Edgy with you?  I’m not getting-“

Adora sighed and shook her head, motioning over at Catra as if the girl’s mere presence explained her point perfectly. “Like I said. Edgy. You’re doing it right now. Catra, it isn’t up to you to decide how I deal with Shadow Weaver.”

“And you’re implying that it  isn’t  going to be you and her, skipping around, acting as if nothing is wrong?”

“That’s  exactly  what I’m implying. Actually, no. I’m just straight up saying it. I’m not going to go around acting like I don’t have a problem with her, because I do. I mean, she  is  the problem. But I can’t just be hostile at her either. If she has information about the attack on Raeley’s village, then I have to do my part for the war effort and force myself to try to convince her to let me know what she thinks might be going on.”

“‘She thinks,’” Catra echoed. “You’re running off to talk to her and you’re not even sure if she’s going to tell you the truth?”

Adora sighed and slumped down in her seat, rubbing a slow hand across her tired eyes as she did so. “Look,” she began talking again, more wearily than before, “If there was anyone else who had a better chance of getting information out of her than I do, then I wouldn’t be doing this at all. I  have  to do this, okay? There’s no getting out of it.”

“But there is a way out of it now,” replied the shorter girl in a low, serious voice. Her eyes locked on to Adora’s as if she was an anchor and Adora was lost at sea. “You know that. You have other options, and if you don’t want to rely on those, then you and I can come up with something. Maybe if you just... talked to the queen about your concerns, she would do something about it? Something to help you? I don’t know. You know her better than I do, obviously.”

“Speaking of help... why are  you  helping  me  now? It’s just- we’ve been at odds for forever, and we’ve both been so busy since the Ball that we haven’t had the time to really sit down and talk, and you were so  upset  a few minutes ago even though I could tell you were trying to tone it down, and I probably shouldn’t have even brought up Shadow Weaver to you in the first place but it’s just- it’s just- Glimmer and Bow, they don’t get it. Bow tries to, and Glimmer does too when we aren’t mad at each other like we have been, but...”

“They’ve had good lives, ‘Dora. A happy childhood.” It was said with her usual amount of bitterness, but her vitriol was not aimed at the blonde for once. “Which.  Good for them,  I guess. But it sounds like they don’t understand at all. I bet it would be a bit hard to confide in them when they’ll either...” she trailed off and glanced back at Adora. “Wait, actually. What  would  they do?”

“Either be all, ‘are you  sure,  Adora?’ and badger me with questions- well, Glim would. She doesn’t know when to quit. Or they’ll freak out to the point where they’ll freak  me  out, and that’s no fun at all.”

“Why would they ask you if you’re sure when they already know that you are?”

Adora hesitated. Catra’s eyes slanted suspiciously at the sight. 

“What have you told them, Adora?” When the princess did nothing more but pick at the sleeves of her white turtleneck, Catra sighed, reading her ex best friend just as well as she always used to. 

Maybe it was the heavy topic. 

Or maybe it was just because things were different now. They were actually trying to patch things up, now, instead of antagonizing and trying to kill each other all the time. If they couldn’t ignore one another back then, then there’s no chance of them letting one another go  now.

“You know, just because you don’t say anything, doesn’t mean that you didn’t hear me. Besides, you’ve always been horrid at ignoring me. Might as well give it up and tell me what I want to know.”

Adora, irritated, crossed her arms tightly across her chest and ignored the intense way that Catra- determined to really communicate before they get interrupted yet again- stared at her. Guess therapy really did her wonders.

“I thought I was the more open one,” she grumbled. 

“Therapy apparently works. Took me a while to get used to it, though.”

“Is this your poorly timed attempt to nudge me into therapy?”

Catra shook her head. “Babe, if I were actually determined about getting you into therapy, you would have been there  yesterday. I wouldn’t count on me not changing my mind, though.”

_Babe, _ Adora mouthed. She found it wise to not question the affection. So, she ran with it. “Fair. But to answer your question, because I  know  you won’t leave me alone until I do-“ a nod there, “...I haven’t exactly told my other friends much. Or, well. I was... really jumpy a while back, so I had to tell them something, so I just kinda... didn’t talk about me?”

“You talked about me instead,” the brunette deduces. “I don’t have to guess what that was about.” She sounded mostly calm.

“You’re not mad about that?”

“I think you talked about me so you wouldn’t have to talk about yourself, but here we are now. So, how’s that working out for you?”

Adora let out a huff. “Apparently, not that well. Thanks a lot for that, by the way. You always  push,  you know that? On and on and on- as if you don’t already know all of this stuff! We both know it, so can we just ignore it so I can go do my job and get it done with?”

“If you talk to Shadow Weaver, you’re going to get hurt.” 

“I’m not going alone,” she scoffed. “She won’t be able to get a hand on me. Or magic, for that matter.” She knows that’s not exactly what Catra meant. They both know that physical pain was never a tactic aimed at Adora. “You know that. You know how this works. 

‘How this works,’ she said, though it was supposed to be long over with. 

“Emotional pain is still pain,” Catra said offhandedly, as if this was something she found as obvious as a ginormous rock in the middle of the road. “Just because you don’t end up with bruised skin doesn’t mean it doesn’t count for something, too.” When Adora only shrugged with an air of faked causality, she paused. “Adora.”

“She’s never hurt me like she’s hurt you. I’ll be fine as I always am. It’s just words. And I have friends to support me. I can deal with it for a few hours.”

“Emotional pain is still _pain,_”  came the repetition. “ And,”  she seemed to hesitate for longer that time, a short period of time occupied only by tense, anticipatory silence, as if even the air itself knew that something important was coming. Calmly, Catra added, “Emotional abuse is still abuse, Adora.” 

The world did not right itself for several moments. 

Adora had never been less sure what to say in her entire life.

Luckily, (or unluckily,) depending on how you look at it, that’s precisely when Glimmer poked her colorful head of hair through the small crack in Adora’s bedroom door.

“Hey... are you okay?” 

Adora blinked. She sat up a bit straighter. _Great. I get two worrywarts for the price of one._ “Great. Grand.”

Her immediate response was to look past Adora and over to the digital version of Catra, who stared back at her passively. That was freaky enough on its own, even without Adora acting off. “Okay... anyway. I just wanted to apologize for what I said the other day. It was really stupid of me.”

Adora nodded. “Yes, it was. It’s not all, ‘Once a Horde member, always a Horde member,’ you know. People can change. I’ve done it. Catra’s done it. Scorpia, obviously. Entrapta, Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio, more than likely.”

“Right!” Glimmer’s head bobbled up and down. “I know. I know that now. I shouldn’t have said something like that just because I got mad. I was worried about you... I know that’s not an excuse!” She lets that last bit out hurriedly. “I’m just saying. That’s what I felt.”

“I know. Why are you here?”

“Why- to apologize, of course!”

“Great,” Catra drawled, voice low and irritated. “You’ve done that. Goodbye now.”

Adora, watching her shortest friend, simply sighed. “No, there’s more. There’s always more. What is it?”

“The information we need on Raeley’s attacked village.”

Adora and Catra sighed in perfect unison. 

“Yeah, that’s what we were just talking about,” Catra confirmed. “We also discussed how there’s no way Adora’s going to talk to Shadow Weaver to get it.”

“ What?  But she needs to! We need to know what the Horde is up to!”

“And Shadow Weaver is an oppressive prick who’ll probably lie straight to your face just to get brownie points. She’s not doing it.”

“Have you even asked her what  she  wants to do? You aren’t in charge of her, you know!”

“No, I’m not.” She agreed on that, at least. “But I’m her- her’s, and if I can try and stop her from making a horrible decision like she’s tried to do with me, I’m going to take that opportunity.”

Adora sighed, looking over at the video image of Catra. “I’m not going to do anything stupid-“

“Are we seriously going to have this argument again?”

“You two were arguing over Shadow Weaver?” Glimmer asked cautiously. She seemed to be trying very carefully not to upset either her friend or her ex-enemy. After all, she’d only just apologized. “You feel  that  strongly about not wanting Adora to talk to her?”

“Come up with a number from one to ten, amplify that number times ten, and that’s how I feel about it.”

“So, on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the strongest you can feel, if I were to pick ten... you’d feel a level twenty?”

Adora rolled her eyes as Catra smirked. 

Business as usual, then.

Adora stood there, expecting Glimmer to keep fighting for Shadow Weaver’s defense, but the shorter girl then proceeded to flip tactics so quickly that Adora was left wondering if her friend even supported Shadow Weaver at all.

“Right. So, do either of you have a game plan?”

“...That’s it? No more objections?”

“Clearly I want you to think for yourself, and not just for your... friend.” _Crush. Girlfriend. Ex-enemy. Ex-girlfriend. Ex-best friend. Current friend. Acquaintances. What the heck even are they now? I haven’t been this out of the loop in years. _ “I just want you to be happy. So. Any plans to get information?”

“Well,” Catra began, “I know of some people who might be able to help you.”


	21. but i ain’t ever crossed a man that didn’t deserve it.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raeley accidentally meets Shadow Weaver. Shadow Weaver not-so-accidentally sets Catra AND Adora off... which is not the best idea.

“I don’t think this is a good idea...”

“Of course it is! I’ve heard Glimmer brag about sneaking food from the kitchens, like,  all the time.”

Determinedly, Raeley grabbed the hand of a small, buck toothed, blonde-haired little girl as she ran off toward, presumably, the kitchens. 

“This is going to be so much fun!”

However, it was not meant to be. 

“Hello... who are you meant to be, little girl?”

Raeley and her anonymous little friend wisely skidded to a halt as they stared confusedly up at a tall, mask wearing, dark clothed woman.

“Why?” asked Raeley, instead of going with her immediate instinct, which was that the woman sounded nice enough, and she really  really  wanted to find the kitchens. Imagine all the cake Raeley could find! And eat! 

The woman blinked. “Well, I just want to make sure that you’re alright. And not getting yourself into any trouble.” Her gentle tones faded into something more refined, something silkier. 

And then, it dawned.

“Ohhh. So,  you’re  Shadow Weaver.”

Shadow Weaver actually seemed to pause for a second; quick as a blink, her hesitation was gone, and she leapt right into studying Raeley from head to toe. 

Then, she did a double take. 

(In the background, Raeley’s little blonde friend backed up a bit, despite the fact that nobody’s attention was on her. Nobody was even looking in her direction.)

“You look... familiar.”

“Yes, I’ve been told so.”

“Really? By who?”

“By my friends.”

Shadow Weaver was not appeased. “Who do your friends think you look like, exactly?”

On reflex, she almost snarked at the woman, but something about her seemed to warn that danger was coming if she didn’t tread just oh-so-carefully. 

“A... soldier.”  There. That was nice and vague, wasn’t it?

There was no change in Shadow Weaver’s face. “A soldier. How cute. You aren’t doing a very good job at fooling me, you know.”

“Fooling you?”  All I wanted to do was go to the kitchens! Now I’m stuck playing mind games with someone who hurt Adora? And Catra, too! How do I win? How do I possibly get out of this? Can I just try and sneak past her? ...No. 

The child looked up and down.

She’s acting as if I’m almost someone else. I don’t know how to use this in my favor.

Fortunately- or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it- Shadow Weaver looked behind Raeley.

“Well, hello. It looks like there’s two of you...” the ‘ all over again’  went unspoken, but was perfectly understood just the same. She locked eyes with the other child, and the girl only seem to shrink back even further. Scowling heavily, Raeley rose up, pushed her friend away, and took a step ahead, leaving her stuck in between the both of them. 

Trying not to sound too hostile, while at the same time trying to make her voice heard, she said, “I don’t like the way you look at her. Or at me.”  We don’t deserve your venom. We don’t deserve to have to be around you at all. 

“How I look at you,” the adult echoed. “I look at you the same as I look at any other child.”

Suddenly struck by a blinding rage, opened her mouth to speak. 

“If that’s how you look at ‘any other child,’ then you shouldn’t be looking at her at all. Ever.”

Raeley paused. She didn’t say that. 

The girl behind her abruptly pulled on her arm and yanked her back toward the corridor wall, leaving no chance for any questioning. 

Luckily, she got the answer to her question rather quickly. 

There Adora stood, strong and determined, her eyes glinting with the same hard fury that Raeley’s had been - except much stronger, and full of the pain only personal experience can give. “Back away from the children.”

Shadow Weaver looked over at her. She did not move away. “Adora.”

“Back away from the children,” she repeated, in no uncertain tones. The warning was clear in her voice. “Now.”

She did so. “Come now, Adora, you don’t need to be so harsh...”

“You’re right. I need to be harsher, but this is not the time or the place to do it.”

She reeled back. “What are you implying?”

Yet another uninvited voice decided to butt it’s way into the conversation, but that might just be for the best. “She means that, if you don’t back off, we’re going to kick you seven ways to Sunday. And it’s not going to be pretty.”

Catra, who had been looking around for Adora, made her appearance. 

Adora didn’t look away from Shadow Weaver. What she  did  do, though, was lock hands with her best friend. “You’re pretty.”

She blinked. “I mean, yes, but also- what?”

“Well. Am I-“

“STOP your incessant flirting!” Shadow Weaver snapped. 

Catra looked at Adora. Shameless, Adora winked.

(And also, did not deny that she was flirting.)

(If either or both of them blushed despite the obvious tension in the room... well, that’s for them to know, isn’t it?)

“Why?” Catra asked, as snarky as Raeley wished to be earlier. “Are you homophobic as well as abusive?”

Beside her, Adora sputtered. 

“ Abusive?”  exclaimed Shadow Weaver, rather dramatically indeed. “Abusive. Really! I’ve never done anything to you that you didn’t deserve.”

Adora stepped forward. Catra yanked her back.

“Ah, yes. We’re going to back to the past for today’s little show, are we now? Catra throwing a fit and Adora standing back to watch.”

Adora stepped forward, again. Catra yanked her back, again. 

“You wanna try me again, bitch?”

“You’re just going to yell at me for a few minutes, that’s all. Forgive me for not being intimidated.”

This time, Catra stepped closer. 

“You were horrible to me. And you were horrible to Adora. And we won’t let you get away with it anymore.”

“I was amazing to Adora. She was my favorite, after all.”

“You just didn’t hit her. That does not make you a saint.”

“I never claimed sainthood, either.”

“Good. You sure as hell don’t deserve it.”

She stepped back some more, and pulled the children close to her chest. Neither of them said a word. 

“We’re leaving. Don’t talk to either of these girls ever again.”

As she said that, she turned to leave. 

“You’ve finally grown a backbone, have you? Adora doesn’t have to save you anymore?”

The aforementioned girl spoke up again, glaring. “I never had to. She can take care of herself just fine. She’s always been able to.”

“It’s been years. You don’t have to defend her anymore. You can still come back to me. You’re like my daughter... I would take you back in again.”

The room stilled when the two former Horde cadets did. 

Raeley sighed. She knew that, when Adora looked at someone like  that,  and glaring so hard it was like lasers drumming into someone’s skull, that she was going to take them  down. 

It was probably fortunate- just so she didn’t actually end up committing murder and therefore facing jail time for it- that Adora didn’t have her She-Ra sword on her in that moment. 

Catra, on the other hand, cackled.

“Oh, no.  Now  you’ve done it.”


	22. i loved you I love you I loved you it’s true, i wanted to be you and do what you do.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Adora is mad beyond belief, there’s almost an all out brawl, and Adora accidentally confesses that she believes Queen Angella to be like a mother to her.

Don’t leave chapter 22

"Now I've done what?" asked Shadow Weaver, in response to Catra's amused 'oh, now you've done it.'

"If she was holding her sword, and saw it moral to rip to to shreds in front of children," she motioned backwards, to where Raeley and her friend were still standing, "You would have been dead already, obviously."

"She would never. She's practically my daughter."

"You dumbass," she sighed, shaking her head exasperatedly. "You really don't learn do you?" She grinned then, suddenly, all bright and feral. "Don't worry," she cooed, as if speaking to a baby and not a fully grown woman, "You'll learn something soon enough." 

Adora, as if she was prompted, stepped forward almost as soon as Catra finished speaking. Her usually bright, energetic blue eyes became dark, her brows were so furrowed that it must have hurt, and her usual lighthearted goofiness was nowhere to be found. Even the children seem to recognize the way danger practically radiates off of Adora's entire body, even if they can't understand the extent of it. They can easily see that she is angry; they don't know that the situation has to be downright horrible to get this much of a rise out of her.

So, Catra stepped backwards, closer to the waiting children.

She didn't so much as look back at either one of them. "Go get the queen. Now."

"We need Queen Angella for this?" Raeley questioned, looking around the room with anxious eyes. It was starting to hit her just what could happen if nobody intervenes soon; in the foreground, Adora started screaming. Despite the volume of the blonde's voice, Catra was leaning down so close that they could understand her perfectly. 

The message, unspoken, was clear: one of them needed to hurry up, or Adora really might have caused damage, sword or not. She-Ra or not. 

Raeley's unnamed blonde little friend stood a bit taller. "Ma'am?" 

Catra glanced around. When nobody responded to the call, she did. "Me?" she pointed one finger at herself. 

The child nodded once. "Yes. Where, um, where is Queen Angella? And what do I do if she doesn't come when I ask her to?"

"Don't worry about that, she will. Now as for-"

Unfortunately, an interruption then came in the form of Raeley, who was staring at Shadow Weaver and Adora with concern as the shouting from both of them grew louder and louder, and how every word seemed fraught with tension. They both looked about a step away from pulling out a weapon- or, in Adora's case, maybe just her fists. And, yes, Catra would normally have no qualms about Adora getting a sense of closure, no matter how anger filled it was, but even she didn't want to see that go down in front of two children.

"Catra?" she asked, unnaturally serious sounding.

"Yeah, Rae?" the nickname was also not entirely normal, but nobody cared about that just then. 

"Do you want me to just take my friend to Queen Angella? That way she doesn't get lost."

It was a cry of 'get me out of here', and it was not a subtle one. 

She nodded. "Go, take her." 

The girl grabbed her friend's hand and took off. Catra quickly called after them, "And don't take your sweet time with it, either! Run for it!" 

"You're not my mother!" Catra caught Adora shrieking. It was lucky the next few corridors over were paying them no mind. "You never were. I was your favorite, and that was all."

"But, Adora-" Shadow Weaver stupidly tried to argue, as if this was a point that the blonde could even possibly be swayed over. "I practically raised you!"

"You didn't do shit." That one came from Catra. She stepped forward to stand at Adora's side. Together, they stood as a united front.

"And it's not like being your favorite was even a good thing! And even if it were, you still would have- and did- treat other kids horribly. And I'm supposed to just, what? Lie down and thank you for not doing what you did to them, to me? No! Newsflash: just because you weren't physically aggressive, doesn't mean that you ever cared for me. Let alone loved me, which is a whole 'nother issue."

"But I did love you, Adora," Shadow Weaver, the liar that lies, lied. 

"No, you didn't. And even if you did, that's not the kind of love that I want or deserve, anymore. I did used to want it, want your love and acceptance, but not anymore. But I..." for the first time, she faltered. She spared a look at Catra for a boost of confidence. The brunette gave her one better; she gave her her hand instead. The cold look in the blonde's eyes melted away for just a second or two, for just how long it took her to shoot her best friend a pair of heart eyes. "I didn't deserve it. I didn't deserve anything you said or did."

Catra, emboldened as well, seconded this statement. "No, she didn't. And neither did I."

"And not only were you not a mother to me, I'm fairly sure that you don't have any parental traits or feelings in your body."

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure that a parent is everything you're not."

"How so?" Shadow Weaver, voice full of sarcasm, asked.

She shouldn't have bothered.

"I have a list," Adora told her, her eyes cold once again. "You want it? Because I've got it."

Catra stared at her for a second. "Is this a real list or a fictional one?"

"Why can't it be both?"

"Is it both?"

"Quite possibly, but that's entirely besides the point." She turned to face Shadow Weaver again. "Okay, so, for a list of what parents actually are, for starters, they supply their child with good food and water."

"I fed you!" the woman sputtered.

"Did I say you didn't? No. I said 'good' food, which you did not give out."

"You gave out rations, not actual food," Catra contributed. "There's a massive difference. Don't you know what vegetables are? Or good meat for people who might possibly need it for protein? Or just because they like it?"

"For a second thing," Adora ticked a finger down, "Real parents provide their kids with good, safe, warm shelter. Unless it's summertime, and the shelter is cold as it should be. Here in Bright Moon, they have all that and more."

"AND," Catra grinned, with a look on her face that screamed, 'I can and will fuck your life up' "All of the good things we have now? None of it came from you. Of all the people we could have gotten it from, wanna know who we did get it from? Princesses."

"Not just princesses, either. The queen accepts us here, you know. On top of that, she cares for us as well. We don't have to do anything to earn it, she just cares for us anyway. You know, I'm pretty sure she's the actual description of what a real mother is like. She's a great one, too, and a good replacement one for me- or, maybe not a replacement, because thanks to you I don't even know who my biological one actually is. So, she's just a good one for me in- Catra, why are you smacking me like that? I'm kind of in the middle of something, here!"

"Yeah, I know, but look behind you," she hissed.

Confused, Adora did.

She immediately regretted it. 

Faintly, she said, "Oh, no."

There stood Raeley, the unnamed little blonde, Glimmer, Bow, (who was probably with Glimmer when everything went down), and, very unfortunately for Adora's embarrassment levels, Queen Angella. 

"How... how much of that did you hear?" she asked, but she was sure she already knew the answer.

"I heard everything," answered Angella predictably. Her lips curled up as she said so. "Now," she surveyed the scene before letting her eyes fall on Adora's. "Let's go have a little chat, shall we?"


	23. ‘cause “parents” ain’t always right.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra and Adora accidentally have a “who can fluster who first” challenge. Angella and Adora talk, though not for very long. Glimmer blurts out something she really shouldn’t have. 
> 
> (Catra likes leather jackets. She likes them even better when they’re on Adora.)

Adora paled. She always hated when someone would walk up to her, give her a stern look, and a 'we need to talk.' Even though she knew the context of this one and  why  Angella wanted to have a talk, but it didn't make it any less nerve wracking.

Especially while standing surrounded by Catra, whom she was still getting to know again, two children she hardly trusted at all, Glimmer who could not relate to her current problems in the slightest, and, of course, Shadow Weaver. 

Shadow Weaver is always a problem.

Angella seemed to remember that around the same time that Adora does.

"Um... should we really leave her alone?"

"Hey!" snapped Catra, not too heatedly. She didn't want to deal with her either, even if she could. (She could certainly try.)

"Seriously? You're going to get offended right now?"

"I'm offended– okay, not as much as I should be. Whatever, carry on."

Adora pointed at Shadow Weaver, who was still staring right back at her impassively.

"Maybe we can have this talk at the same time?" Angella suggested, not keeping her eyes off of the evil woman in front of her. 

"In front of Shadow Weaver?"

"Do you suggest a better option?"

Catra snickered; Adora elbowed her and shook her head. 

"I guess if we have to talk then we should probably just do it here and get it done with."

"Do you want the rest of us to leave you two alone?" Glimmer, who was standing off to the side, offered. "Because we can do that if you need us to."

"What's the point in it?" asked Adora, her face painted a bright, burning red. "We won't be able to be alone anyway!"

Glimmer nodded. "Still, it'll give you at least some semblance of privacy, won't it?"

"I mean, I  guess..."

She clapped her hands together gleefully, for some indiscernible reason. "Wonderful! I'll just take the children and Catra with me-"

Catra blinked at her. "I thought you hated me, so why are you asking me to come with you?"

"I'm not asking you. I'm  telling  you."

"Well, that's a bad idea," she scoffed. "Telling me to do something never, ever works. Just ask Adora. She's the only one who can even halfway manage it, and she always fails. I take everything as a personal challenge, Sparkles. You probably should have picked up on that already."

"Hey," Adora protested halfheartedly. She shrugged. "I mean, you're not wrong. But still!"

"Don't worry, 'Dora. You're still the main one that gets me going." 

Adora flushed a brighter, much fiercer red, albeit for a much different reason than before. It was so strong so suddenly that she couldn't even attempt to hide it. Catra was not oblivious to this; she grinned like the cat ate the canary. Smug, slow, and overwhelmingly confident. "Oh, you like that now, don't you?"

"I'm- ugh-  stop that."

"Stop what?" Catra sauntered closer and closer as her tail swished back and forth, matching her movements perfectly, in total sync. Her eyes were dark, her grin way too wicked; she knew  exactly  what she was doing. "Stop what? All I'm doing is walking. You want me to stop moving?"

She knew perfectly well what she was doing. 

And she  loved it.

She loved how riled up she could make her best friend, and how nobody could quite do it like her. Nobody could make Adora blush quite the same way, and  everybody  knew it. 

"If you want me to stop, 'Dora, you're going to have to beg for it."

"OKAY. That's the end of that!" Glimmer had quite enough– she didn't want to see where she thought the blatant flirting was going, and she most definitely did not want to let Raeley or her best friend to see that with their young, innocent eyes either.

Then, suddenly, it somehow got even worse. 

Adora propped a hand on her chin and sashayed up to Catra, full of the confidence the She-Ra side of her (noticeably still absent) was always able to bring. This time, however, it was pure Adora. 

It was like a switch was flipped- gone was the crimson face and wide eyes, replaced by an enigmatic smirk. 

Catra watched her approach, and continued her sultry technique. "Hey, Adora."

It didn't work. For the first time ever,  it had absolutely no effect. 

Adora flicked a lock of hair over her shoulder, shook her head some, and watch as the tight, poofed up portion of her hair came tumbling down across her shoulders and out of its typically done ponytail. 

"Glimmer," she addressed without looking away. "Do you still have that leather jacket Bow said he offered to you the other day?"

"She gave it back to me, but I have it now," answered Bow, whom the other teenagers had forgotten was there. 

"Can you toss it to me?"

She stared into Catra's eyes so hard that it felt like a challenge.

Bow obediently passed it to her. Instantly, she put it on. It felt tight– it didn't feel like it fit correctly, but that could easily be contributed to it just not being the right side for her, but it wasn't  too  bad. And if it got the rise out of her crush that she so desperately wanted... then she would definitely wear the thing for a few minutes. (Plus, she didn't really want to talk with Angella anyway. What more needed to be said? She thought of the woman as a mother to her. Boom. Said. Done. It was just unfortunate that the woman herself didn't seem to agree.)

Once the jacket was secured and her long blonde hair draped over her shoulders and over the leather, she stepped closer and closer. Her red and white boots went  click-clack  against the hard tile floor. She was the only person making a sound– well, a sound that she was paying any attention to, anyway. The others could have thrown a party behind her and she might not have noticed, she was so focused on her best friend.

"Hey, Catra."

For a moment or two, it seemed like it didn't work. It seemed like the plan was a total bust. 

But, then, Catra did not snark back. She didn't give off yet another one of her infamous greetings. She just stood there, appearing in some degree of shock, blinking slowly as she stared Adora up and down. 

It took everyone a few more seconds to register that Catra's face was as bright as Adora's had been just minutes before. 

"Is she– is she actually  blushing?"  Bow whispered to Glimmer, in the background. "Like, with her actual  face?"

"Well, what else would she blush with?"

"Her face is really red."

"I know," Glimmer said, with no small degree of glee. She loved matchmaking, and although she would definitely not choose Catra for Adora– she still thought the former was not good enough for the latter– it wasn't hard to see that both girls really were making an effort to treat each other better than they ever have in the past. Now their flirting was not out of spite, from what Glimmer could tell... but perhaps out of genuine affection.

This is gonna get good.

"We can totally use this."

"Absolutely not," Bow denied. "We're not getting in the middle of this."

In the foreground, Adora was playing with a bouncy strip of her hair. Catra looked like she was about to combust; the girls had hardly any space between them now. 

"We  need  to. They're pathetic."

"They can hear you, you know."

"No, they can't," Shadow Weaver, sounding displeased, butted her way in to their hushed conversation. "I don't think they have eyes or ears for anything that aren't each other at the moment."

She was obviously not happy; the other two just weren't sure which of her many reasons it could be at the moment.

They don't have to wait long to get an answer, as it turns out.

"They're like sisters," she said, despite the fact that neither of the girls themselves have ever even alluded to feeling that family feeling with one another. 

"That's not how sisters talk to one another," Glimmer scoffed, rolling her eyes for good measure. "Anyway. Angella and Adora have to actually have a chat, so I'm just going to watch you." 

"I don't need a babysitter."

"Oh, you need a bit more than that."

Then, "Adora," Angella called, as if on cue. "Let's sit for a moment and have a little chat, why don't we?" 

While they sat down, calming down, Glimmer and Shadow Weaver were just heating up.

"You're a piece of garbage and you deserve every bad thing that will befall you," Glimmer said, glaring. "And I just really hope that you're aware of how sincerely I mean that."

"I have done nothing-"

"You're an absolute liar, but we can get into that later. What's your real problem with Catra and Adora supposedly flirting? And don't say it's because you think that they feel like sisters. Anyone with two working eyes can tell that they clearly don't."  _ Definitely flirting, not maybe, but I'm not getting into that too heavily right now.  _

"They're like sisters, and I sincerely believe that. I raised them. I would know."

"You wouldn't know anything. What they're feeling is love– and not the bullshitted kind of love that you're so fond of. It's really obvious, actually. I mean, of course, neither of them will admit that-"

Meanwhile, in the foreground, Adora heard the last bit of Glimmer's argument, and primed herself to listen in the best that she can while still maintaining the momentum of her own conversation. 

Catra, on the other hand, had no such requirements, and was therefore eavesdropping without any problems getting in her way.

So, naturally, she heard Glimmer say, loud and clear,

"- But even though she won't admit to it, everybody knows that Adora is in love with Catra, and that Catra is head over heels now for Adora."

Catra, unnoticed by Glimmer, freezed as if she were stunned. She turned to face Adora, only to find a terrifying prospect looking back at her... 

Adora was staring at her too, just as shocked and wide eyed. Angella, noticing this, stopped talking immediately to look between the two girls, totally confused. 

She had not been paying any attention to any of the conversations that were not the only one she herself was involved in, so she was clueless. "What did I miss?"

Adora was still staring at Catra.

Breathless, Catra and Adora accidentally spoke in perfect unison.

"You're in love with me?"


	24. i wanna ruin our friendship, we should be lovers instead.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra and Adora come to an amazing conclusion about one another, coming clear about their feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> gotta admit, once again don’t think anyone is read this but also more importantly I’m sorry this chapter is so short, I’ve been rather busy this month and last month

Chapter 24

“You’re in love with me?” Catra and Adora breathlessly repeated, staring wide eyed at one another. They stood a few feet away from each other; when one of the girls moved forward, she jerked back, way too anxious to seriously consider wrapping the other girl up in her arms the way she really wanted to do. 

They needed to figure this out, first.

(Glimmer, in the background, had eyes as large as their’s– after all, she hadn’t meant to blurt something so important out where both teenagers could hear her.)

After a solid two minutes of this sort of limbo, Catra finally caved. She took five steps forward and, when she got nervous again, one step back. Adora furrowed her brow and mimicked the motions. 

“You love me,” Catra said, wondrously. She still wasn’t sure she believed it. It’s everything she ever wanted to hear, and more. When Adora nodded, hesitant but sure, Catra exploded inside, and tried not to squeal aloud like a teenage girl.

Wait. She actually  was  a teenage girl. It’d probably be fine anyway. 

She gave up on her resistance when Adora braved a few steps more, going so far as to hold her hand. 

She was holding her hand.

Adora was holding Catra’s hand.

Adora  was holding  Catra’s hand.

Catra squeaked and fumbled, attempting to grasp Adora’s hand in her own. She was sure that her face was as red as her crush’s was. 

“Hi,” Adora whispered, with none of the confidence that her leather jacket wearing self once held. “You love me.”

“This has been established already,” Catra mumbled back, not even half as snarkingly as she otherwise might have. She leaned in closer, trying to regain some of her typical cockiness, but that day, it was nowhere to be found. For once, all layers were stripped aside, leaving behind only pure, innocent emotion. Love. 

She loved her. 

Adora reciprocated the motion. She moved in as well, so close their faces were almost touching. (It was as if the audience around them had completely faded away. There was nothing else, just Catra and Adora. The world could be imploding around them and they might not have noticed right away, that’s how focused they were.)

They were so, so close...

But, that day, a kiss was not meant to be.

"You guys, I just had a breakthrough!"

Despite knowing Glimmer probably wouldn't just interrupt them for no good reason, it took a lot of strength not to scream out a quick, "Damn it, Glimmer!" as the girls grudgingly broke apart from one another, as their hands fell away from one another's faces. Their eye contact finally seemed to break.

"This 'breakthrough' better be revolutionary, I'm so not playing around with you right now. What is it? What could possibly be so important right now?"

"Calm down, I'm not just talking to talk-- or, at least I'm not doing that right now. Look, I'm sure everyone here remembers Raeley's village, right? Yes or no?" she asked, knowing full well what the answer to that is. "Is everyone paying attention?"

"Yes, now that you've ensured we don't have a choice in the matter," grumped Catra, who was leaning toward Adora still. "Could you get to the point? I kind of have something to do."

Glimmer's eyes skated back and forth at the little amount of space remaining between the other two teenagers. "Yes," she said, "I'm quite sure of it. But for now, shut up and let me talk."

Catra rolled her eyes, but obeyed with only a quick hand motion of 'just get on with it then.' 

"Soooo, I've been talking with some other former Horde kids recently, and they had some things to say about the attack."

"Yes, I'm sure that's how-"

"Kindly fuck off. Anyway, they said that the random attack on Raeley's village? Yeah, about that. It's not so random after all."

"...What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what it sounds like I mean. They said that the attack isn't going to be the only one, and that it's a part of some greater plan, or strategy. They're not done yet..." she sighed then, looking as if she wished not to talk about this at all. (Even though she had been the one to bring it up in the first place.)

"What else? Get on with it."

She did, immediately.

"The Horde is not as ruined as we suspected that they would be. They were down, but they're returning now, and they're not out for the count."


End file.
